| Audit Period: | If you are a licensee, the table below sets out your audit period and when your audit report is due for lodgement. |
| Audit Due Date: | Your audit report must be lodge within 4 months after the end of your audit period, unless it is your last year of business where it must be lodged with us within 2 months after you stop carrying on a business. |
| Audit Report submitted to: | Lodge the audit report to https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=trust-account-audit |
| Licence issue month | Audit report due | Audit period |
| January | 31-Jan | 1 October -30 September |
| February | 28/29 Feb | 1 November -31 October |
| March | 31-Mar | 1 December – 30 November |
| April | 30-Apr | 1 January – 31 December |
| May | 31-May | 1 February – 31 January |
| June | 30-Jun | 1 March -28/29 February |
| July | 31-Jul | 1 April – 31 March |
| August | 31-Aug | 1 May – 30 April |
| September | 30-Sep | 1 June – 31 May |
| October | 31-Oct | 1 July – 30 June |
| November | 30-Nov | 1 August – 31 July |
| December | 31-Dec | 1 September – 31 August |
Trust account audits for agents in the property, motor, auction and debt collector industries
If you receive trust money, you must operate a trust account. Each trust account must be audited each year by a qualified auditor. You are responsible for arranging lodgment of this audit report with us each year.
Appointing an auditor
You must appoint an auditor when you open a trust account. An auditor is a registered auditor or a member of a prescribed entity.
A registered auditor is a person who:
holds a valid registration under the Corporations Act 2001
works for a registered auditing company.
A member of a prescribed entity is a person who is a member of:
– CPA Australia (using the letters CPA or FCPA)
– the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia (using the letters CA or FCA)
– the Institute of Public Accountants (using the letters MIPA or FIPA).
When appointing an auditor, you need to:
– make the appointment within a month of opening your trust account
– notify us within a month of making the appointment
– include evidence in the notification to us that the auditor has accepted the appointment.
Changing your auditor
If you change your auditor, you and your auditor must each tell us:
– within 1 month
– the reason/s for the change.
Audit period and due dates
The audit report covers a specified audit period that:
is for the same 12-months period each year except in your first and last years of business ends on the last day of the month.
Collection agents who do not need a licence have an audit period that runs from 1 July to 30 June the following year with their audit report due by 31 October each year.
Unused trust accounts
If you didn’t use your trust accounts throughout the entire audit period, you may lodge a statutory declaration to this effect. This is a legally binding statement that you did not:
– operate the trust account during the audit period
– receive any funds on behalf of another person or entity.
You won’t need to submit an audit report if you lodge a statutory declaration.
Penalties
If you do not lodge your audit report on time:
– you can be fined
– you can be convicted of an offence
– we can cancel or suspend your licence.
– Lodge your audit report
Please upload the report through our online portal at Trust Account Audit Report Lodgement (business.gov.au). If this is not possible, the report can be emailed to [email protected].
You are ultimately responsible for lodging your audit report, however, your auditor can lodge it on your behalf.
Apply for an extension
You can apply for an extension for lodging your audit report. You must:
notify in writing before the audit period report is due to be lodged
– state the reason/s for the extension
– tell us the extra time you need.
Lodge your final audit
If you stop trading, you must lodge your final audit. You will have 2 months from the day you stop trading to lodge the final audit report.
You can lodge your final audit report online.
The information above is taken from the following website:
View Auditor Checklist for more information: