Online accountants accused of ‘deceptive behaviour’ on SMSF start-ups
An online accountancy and administrative services firm is being accused of misleading and deceptive behaviour in relation to ads offering ‘free SMSF setup' on two of its websites.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) commenced legal action in the Federal Court of Australia, against Superannuation Warehouse Australia Pty Ltd (SWA), seeking to prevent the business from advertising free self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) start-ups.
ASIC alleged that SWA had "engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct in relation to financial services, and made false or misleading representations when it promoted the free set-up of SMSFs on websites without clearly disclosing that conditions and charges were associated with the free set-up service."
In a statement, ASIC revealed it was seeking declarations, injunctions and financial penalties requiring SWA to implement a compliance program, and post notices on the superannuationwarehouse.com.au and SMSFwarehouse.com.au websites, and notify consumers who applied to SWA for the free SMSF set-up service about the proceedings.
The SMSFwarehouse.com.au website states:
"The Free SMSF setup is for Individual Trustees when we set up the SMSF. If Trustees want to use a Corporate Trustee to be set up, we do charge $950 for the Pty Ltd Company setup with ASIC. Note the SMSF setup with the ATO is always free. Most Funds are set up using individual Trustees. For the advantages of using a corporate Trustee, see the page explaining pros and cons of using a Corporate Trustee. If you want to use a corporate Trustee, please add this in the notes section of the application page."
AUTHOR
Nicholas O'Donoghue
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