The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has urged employers to ensure they are SuperStream compliant as the June 30 deadline approaches.
The ATO’s national program manager for SuperStream, Philip Hind, explained that any employees with self-managed super funds (SMSFs) must provide certain details to their employer so that the payroll system is up to date before the deadline.
The information which must be provided is the SMSF’s:
- Australian Business Number (ABN)
- bank account details
- electronic service address
It is estimated that around 40% of employees with SMSFs are still yet to take these steps.
“We recommend that self-managed super funds provide these details to their employer at least 30 days prior to when the employer will start sending contributions using SuperStream,” Hind said. “This will allow enough time for the employer to manage the changes and ensures the SMSF has met their obligation and has no interruption in maintaining their contributions flow.”
SMSFs must be able to receive employer contributions electronically by June 30 if the employee works for a medium or large employer.
If an SMSF member fails to provide this information to their employer with the required information by the deadline, employers are advised to request that the employee completes a new choice form, which should include the required e-commerce details.
According to the ATO, if an employee’s selection of a choice fund omits the necessary information, the selection process is not complete.
It is important for employers to reiterate to SMSF employees that being SuperStream compliant is a legal obligation for business operations.
“This is really the end of the formal compliance period for large and medium employers,” Hind told
HC. “From July 1 we will definitely be looking into and responding to those who haven’t complied and starting to get a lot more directive in terms of checking what employers are doing – we’re starting to gradually ramp up compliance activity.”
“The best remedy for falling behind is for employers to have their plans available and in place so that they can prove they have something ready to put into action,” Hind explained.
“The key benefit for employers is that SuperStream provides a simple and standard way for contributions to be paid, irrespective of which funds they are going to,” Hind told
HC. “Most employers have many funds that they’re contributing to, and often that has meant that they have had to work with different formats – we’ve standardised all that.”
He added that the ATO has already seen significant benefits being reported by businesses where they’ve reduced time spent on organising these funds from over a day to two hours.
“Where an employee who is a member of an SMSF hasn’t provided this info but the employer has requested it, they can reissue a choice form which needs to be completed within 28 days,” Hind said. “If they fail to do that then the employer is entitled to put that into a default fund of their choice.”
