SG non-payment low priority for ATO claims union

Pursuit of superannuation guarantee (SG) non-payment is regarded as a low priority for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) because the super guarantee is not a revenue product for Government, according to a key public sector union.

The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has used a submission to the Senate Economics Committee inquiry into SG non-payment to warn that the ability of the ATO to effectively manage the SG is limited due to significant under-resourcing. Despite a growing population and increased expectations from the community, ATO ongoing staffing levels have declined, the union submission said.

Between 2013-14 and 2015-16, average staffing levels at the ATO fell by over 4,000 or by nearly a quarter.

It said that in many submissions, the CPSU had outlined how these cuts had significantly impacted the ability of the ATO to detect and deal with corporate and other tax avoidance, claiming that another consequence of the reduced staffing and resourcing, as reported by CPSU members, was that work that was previously completed by more senior staff, was now being completed by staff at the APS 3 and 4 level, which had led to a reduction in investigations.

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"Many CPSU members believe that SG is a low priority for the ATO, as SG is not a revenue product for government, so cannot provide a dollar value return, like many other areas of ATO," the submission said.

This extends to investigation of contracting to avoid superannuation guarantee payments. For workers in this circumstance, CPSU members in the ATO report reluctance from affected workers to pursue valid claims as they consider it will jeopardise ongoing work and/or they do not have the capacity to pursue civil claims, it said