Monday, 4 April 2022
Trust accounts March update for members
Trust account year ending 31 March 2022
Information relating to the upcoming external examinations of trust accounts was sent out recently from the Society to all Managing Partners and Sole Practitioners. If you did not receive your circular in the mail or would like an electronic copy sent to you, please contact Lea McLean at the Society on 6274 0300, or email at lea.mclean@actlawsociety.asn.au.
Important dates
Important dates to be aware of are as follows:
- 31 March 2022: Trust accounting year end and calculation date for Statutory Deposit amount.
- 8 April 2022: External examiner must be appointed by this date, and the Society notified in writing within one month of the examiner being appointed. A form is available to use for notification purposes.
- 31 May 2022: External examiner’s report to be received at the Law Society.
Note: Note: No external examination is required if, between 1 - 30 April 2022, the Society is given a Statutory Declaration stating that no trust money or controlled money was received or held by the law practice during the year ended 31 March 2022, or the only trust money received by a law practice during the year ended 31 March 2022 was transit money. There is additional information in the circular relating to the wording required on the statutory declaration for those firms without a trust account using the PEXA Source Account.
A list of designated external examiners can be found on the website.
Additional trust account information
Monthly trust reconciliation reports should be reviewed carefully and any adjustment entries which appear on one month’s report, should not remain on the report in future months. If any deposits received into the trust account cannot be identified the law firm needs to contact their bank as soon as possible to have their bank trace the funds.
We ask that any unpresented trust cheques be followed up within 3 to 6 months, as there is no need to wait for cheques to become stale before determining if the recipient has lost the cheque.