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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Objective, supportable market values for the assets an SMSF auditor cannot tick off from a statement: private company shares, units in a related trust, the premises your business rents from the fund, and loans.
Indicative valuations from A$799. Certified Summary and Detailed reports from seven business days.
An SMSF must report every asset at market value each year, and the trustees must be able to show an auditor the evidence behind the figure. For unlisted shares, related unit trusts, business real property and loans that means a documented valuation, refreshed when a pension starts or a related party deals with the fund, and dated 30 June 2026 for Division 296.
Every self managed superannuation fund has to prepare its accounts with assets at market value, and the trustees, not the accountant, carry the obligation under the superannuation regulations to hold objective and supportable evidence behind each figure. For listed shares and cash that evidence is a statement. For the assets Sydney trustees actually argue with their auditor about, it is not.
Those assets are the fund's holding in a private trading company, units in a unit trust the family also owns, a factory unit in Marrickville or consulting rooms in Chatswood leased to the members' own business, and loans made to people the members know. None of them has a quoted price, and each needs a method, evidence and a date.
The number then flows into places trustees do not always expect. It sets the total superannuation balance that governs whether members can still contribute, the credit to a transfer balance account when a pension starts, the minimum pension drawdown, and the in-house asset percentage that must stay under 5 per cent. A weak valuation can breach several rules at once, and a related-party transaction at the wrong price can turn the income into non-arm's length income taxed at the top marginal rate.
We prepare the valuations SMSF auditors ask for, on the asset classes they scrutinise most, timed to the trigger that made them necessary. Your accountant and auditor apply the superannuation law. Our job is to make sure the value they are applying it to will stand up.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Regulation 8.02B of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations requires fund assets to be valued at market value for the annual financial statements, and the ATO's valuation guidelines for SMSFs explain what it expects trustees to hold in support. The guidelines do not demand a formal valuation of every asset every year. They demand evidence a prudent person would accept, produced on request, and refreshed whenever the value could have moved materially.
Each 30 June the fund's assets are stated at market value. Carrying the same figure forward for several years without evidence of a review is one of the patterns the ATO has said it looks for, and an auditor who cannot be satisfied must qualify the audit and may have to lodge a contravention report.
The highest-stakes trigger. The value on the day a pension starts fixes the credit to the member's transfer balance account and the base for the minimum payment, and neither can be quietly revised later. A fresh valuation on that date is the safe course for any unlisted asset.
Acquisitions from a related party are only permitted for certain assets, business real property among them, and only at market value. Disposals to related parties must be on arm's length terms. Either way, the valuation is what proves the price was a market price, and the auditor will ask to see it.
Benefit payments and rollovers, transfers between accumulation and pension phase, a fund wind-up, and any event that could have moved an asset materially, such as a major tenant leaving or a downturn in the company the fund holds shares in.
From 1 July 2026 an additional tax applies to earnings attributable to the part of a member's total superannuation balance above $3 million, with a higher tier above $10 million, calculated on realised earnings. The first balance test is 30 June 2026. The legislation also provides a one-off election to reset the cost base of the fund's directly held assets to their market value at that date. For a fund holding property, private company shares or unlisted units, that makes the 30 June 2026 valuation the most consequential the fund has ever obtained: it sets the balance, it may set the cost base for every future gain, and the election cannot be revisited. Rates, thresholds and the election mechanics should be confirmed with the fund's adviser, and valuations booked early, because valuers' diaries fill in the weeks before 30 June.
The method follows the asset, and the auditor's first question is whether the method fits. Net asset backing is acceptable for a company that only holds investments. It is not acceptable for a trading company, because it leaves out the goodwill that a buyer would pay for and that the earnings demonstrate.
Private company shares and trading trusts are valued under the income approach, capitalising maintainable earnings after normalisation, with comparable sales as the cross-check and net assets as the floor. Where the fund holds a non-controlling parcel we reason through whether a discount for lack of control or marketability applies in these particular circumstances and document the conclusion, because auditors and the ATO reject discounts applied by habit as readily as discounts ignored.
Business real property leased to the members' own business needs two figures: the capital value, supported by comparable sales or a registered valuer's report where the amount is material, and the market rent, because a lease to a related tenant below market rent fails the arm's length requirement however well the capital value is supported. Western Sydney industrial property and suburban medical rooms are where we see this most. Units in a related unit trust require the unit value and the underlying property valued at the same date, and confirmation that the trust still meets the conditions that keep it outside the in-house asset rules. Loans are valued on recoverability, security and whether the terms are commercial, never at face value. Collectables follow their own regulation, including a qualified independent valuer whenever one is sold to a related party.
These are the findings that produce qualified audit reports and auditor contravention reports, and each is avoidable with the right method applied on the right date.
Most SMSF valuations are read by an auditor and, on occasion, the ATO, so a certified Summary report is the usual instrument: it sets out the method, the evidence and the reasoning at a depth an auditor can rely on without the workfile. Where a related-party transaction is large, a pension is starting on a material unlisted asset, or the 30 June 2026 election turns on the figure, the deeper report earns its keep.
The report names the trigger it was prepared for and the date it speaks to, states the standard of value and the information relied on, and then values each asset with the method that fits it. For a trading company that means the normalisation schedule, the earnings capitalised and the rate applied, each with its source. For property it means the comparable evidence and the rent evidence side by side. The conclusion is reconciled and explained so the auditor can follow it without calling us, although they are welcome to.
A certified valuer signs every report, is independent of the trustees and the entities valued, and will answer the auditor's questions directly and defend the opinion to the ATO if a review follows. That independence is most of what the auditor is relying on, and it is the reason a one-page letter from the fund's own accountant rarely satisfies them.
If your auditor asked today for the evidence behind the largest unlisted asset in the fund, could you hand over a dated, reasoned document from someone who does not benefit from the number? If not, that is the valuation to commission first.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.