Reporting Requirements

Last amended: 27 May 2011

Required information

The trustee of a special disability trust (SDT) must provide the financial statements of the trust as at 30 June of the relevant financial year. The financial statements must include information which complies with the Australian Accounting Standards, including:

• profit and loss statement,
• balance sheet with applicable notes, and
• depreciation schedule for each class of assets (where applicable).

Note: A copy of the trust tax return for the relevant financial year must also be provided.

Statutory declaration

A statutory declaration must be included confirming that:

• expenditure for the relevant financial year (apart from reasonable trust costs and taxes) was spent on care and accommodation costs of the principal beneficiary, and other purposes primarily for the benefit of the principal beneficiary,
• expenditure for the relevant financial year was not spent on purposes other than the above and no payments were made to services provided by an immediate family member, and
• the trustee has declared that the information provided therein is all true and correct.

Reporting timeframes

The financial statements and statutory declaration must be provided on or before 31 March each year for the previous complete financial year.

Who can prepare the financial statements?

Where one of the trustees is a trustee corporation, the financial statements must be prepared in accordance with the regulatory and legislative requirements applying to trustee corporations. Where none of the trustees is a trustee corporation, a person who is a member of CPA Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, or the National Institute of Accountants must prepare the financial statements. The person preparing the financial statements cannot be an immediate family member.