Open a bank account for your SMSF
Please read this section and watch the “Setting Up Your SMSF Bank Account” video which is below. Setting up the bank account is the most involved part of the entire process but don’t worry, we are here to make it painless. Once this bank account is opened, everything else can be done at home on the couch. Northern Territory residents need to pay stamp duty on the SMSF before opening a bank account. If you are a Northern Territory resident please read this.
The moment any money hits your SMSF bank account your fund is active and the full year’s accounting needs to be completed. If you do not want this, wait until July 1st to open the bank account. If you wait until the 1st of July you will pay $220 for the Return-Not -Necessary lodgement as opposed to $1800 (12 x $150 for single member funds) for the full year’s accounting. The Return-Not -Necessary lodgement is only available in the first year. Read more about this option here.
The banks do not accept electronic signatures yet, so you need to do some printing and signing.
Print off the following documents which can be found with your establishment documents in section 1 of the Welcome Pack…
- constitution.pdf – Print the entire doc and sign the last page (sign page 34, it has “Execution” written on the top of the page).
- deed.pdf – Print the entire doc and sign the last page (sign page 70, it has “Execution, Executed as a deed” written on the top of the page).
These are the only 2 pages you need to physically sign. When signing the last page of the deed and constitution, you along with each member and a witness need to sign again. It can be a different witness than the electronic signing you did earlier but the witness still needs to be over 18 and not involved with the fund in any way. (that means not a trustee/member or beneficiary)
The date on the deed execution page is already entered. You do not need to change this date. Please enter this same date on the constitution execution page.
Take the docs to the bank and bring all the trustees along with 100 points of ID for everyone.
Approved Banks
When going to the bank, be aware that you might need to come back later in the day or the following day to finalise the account set up.
If the bank clerk asks for the “settlor” details or the “settled” amount, tell them there is no “settlor” or “settled” amount as this is an SMSF. (other accounts like family trusts have a settlor, SMSFs do not).
Bank 7 Point Checklist
- Open your SMSF bank account at either ANZ, CBA or NAB.
- IMPORTANT: When at the bank, DO NOT mention cryptocurrencies, bitcoin or anything referring to the crypto space.
- Select the correct type of account. You just need a basic business bank account but also advise the bank that it is for an SMSF. They should understand what to do from there.
- Even though your registered address for the SMSF is New Brighton Capital’s address, for the SMSF bank account just use your home address so you receive the bank statements.
- Make sure the name of your account is correct. The name of the bank account needs to be “The company name” as trustee for “The SMSF name”. For example… ABC Pty Ltd as trustee for Smith Family Super. NOTE: The name of the bank account is the only time you need to use this format. For every other account you just use the SMSF name (Smith Family Super).
- Request a debit card as this is handy for incidental purchases like hardware wallets etc.
- Request monthly electronic bank statements (not 3,6 month or annually) – If you do not receive monthly statements you might miss lodging deadlines while waiting for your statement.
If you are considering trading shares, ANZ, CBA and NAB all have share trading platforms you can attach to your bank account. This is normally set up online (not in the bank) but you can confirm this by asking the clerk for the best way to open an account on their share platform.