Gordon Merchant was the brains behind the Billabong label. With advice from a large accounting firm, Merchant took a few structuring steps to minimise tax on the sale of a business. Nothing wrong with that.

The steps involved his super fund buying some of the business. The ATO alleged that, given the involvement of his fund in this re-structuring, he breached several trustee obligations: failing to properly consider the fund’s investment strategy, failing the sole purpose test and providing financial assistance to himself personally. These are three fundamental errors in administering an SMSF.