Government cracks down on employer super obligations

The Government has declared that it is unacceptable for people to not be paid their superannuation entitlements, releasing further superannuation reforms aimed at making employers meet their super obligations to their workers.

The draft laws, announced by the minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer, last week, extend single touch payroll to all employers from 1 July, 2019. The Government hoped that this would improve reporting of super obligations.

This, combined with the event-based reporting already coming into force on 1 July this year, would improve the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO’s) ability to get real-time information about employers’ compliance.

O’Dwyer’s office said that this would assist the ATO in early detection of breaches and help it proactively prevent the non-payment of superannuation.

VIEW ALL

View all

The proposed laws also make the consequences of breaching superannuation obligations more serious for employers.

“The ATO will have a suite of enforcement and collection tools, including strengthened arrangements for director penalty notices and security deposits for superannuation and other tax-related liabilities,” O’Dwyer’s office warned.

The ATO would, for the first time, have the ability to apply for court-ordered penalties, including up to a years’ imprisonment. It would also be able to require employers to undertake training.

The new measures followed the Superannuation Guarantee Cross-Agency Working Group’s recommendations.