Employers could face fines if they fail to submit their workers’ superannuation contributions electronically, under new government proposals to help streamline the scheme.
Employers could face fines if they fail to submit their workers’ superannuation contributions electronically, under new government proposals to help streamline the scheme.
The government’s review of the superannuation system by Jeremy Cooper said that currently 60 per cent of Australian employers still pay some, or all, of the contributions using cheques, with 38 per cent using cheques alone.
This causes an unwanted administration burden costing unnecessary time and money and the report said financial penalties should be paid by employers who refuse to submit payments electronically.
The Superstream report recommends measures including mandatory use of electronic transactions, more intelligent use of tax file numbers, licensing of clearing houses, common data standards, faster fund switching and consolidation of lost super accounts.
Review Chair, Jeremy Cooper, said: "The super system handles over 100 million transactions a year. It seems crazy that so many of them are still paper-based and that the owners of billions of dollars worth of super can't be found. We have to get this part of the system into the 21st century."
