Employers should report SG in more detail, more often

Employers, including small businesses, should be made to report more detailed superannuation guarantee (SG) information to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) more frequently, according to the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST).

The industry funds organisation has argued that such an upgrading in the process will help defeat problems with the black economy and overcome SG non-payment issues.

In a submission to the Federal Government’s Black economy taskforce, the AIST pointed to a range of measures already recommended by the Superannuation Guarantee Cross-Agency Working Group and said such measures would have its backing.

It noted that the working group considered that Single Touch Payroll (STP) should be extended to businesses with 19 or fewer employees as soon as practicable on the basis that this would ensure that the ATO received regular and accurate information on superannuation guarantee obligations from all employers.

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 The AIST also noted that the working group considered that superannuation funds should report more information more frequently to the ATO on the superannuation guarantee contributions received from employers – something that was capable of implementation by 1 July, next year.

“AIST strongly supports these recommendations from the working group, and recommends that they be endorsed and promoted by the taskforce,” the AIST submission said.

The submission said that while the AIST saw merits in a New Payment Platform (NPP) and its potential to allow users to verify ABN details and reduce the scope for fraud, it believed the ongoing development of SuperStream, the Superannuation Transaction Network, STP and the new reporting arrangements would be the most effective way of increasing superannuation compliance by employers.

“SuperStream has resulted in the significantly faster and more visible processing and allocation of transactions to members accounts, with the new arrangements for reporting superannuation contributions to the ATO meaning that these will be reported to the ATO in ‘near real time’ from next year,” it said.