POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
AIST welcomes tougher SG enforcement legislation
The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) has welcomed the expected passage today of legislation aimed at ensuring small businesses comply with their legal obligation to pay superannuation for their workers.
Commenting on the effect of the legislation, AIST chief executive, Eva Scheerlinck said that for too long some businesses had been able to avoid their obligations to pay super because of outmoded laws with the result that workers had suffered, while non-compliant employers had had unfair advantage over the majority of employers who were good corporate citizens.
The new legislation – which will come into force by 1 July, 2019 - will mean that employers with less than 20 employees will have to comply with ‘real-time’ reporting of wage and superannuation information to the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
Previously, real-time reporting only applied to larger employers, while small businesses were able to take as long three months to make and report super payments.
The AIST noted that, importantly, the new legislation would also shift the burden of identifying and collecting unpaid super from individual workers and ex-employees to the ATO and that, up until now, the ATO had largely relied on employees to make complaints to alert them to the non-payment of super – at a very real risk to the jobs of the employees who do this. This measure will apply to all employers.
“We congratulate the Government on adopting and implementing this measure which is extremely important for vulnerable workers,” Scheerlinck said.
Scheerlinck noted that recent research by AIST member fund Cbus had identified an estimated shortfall of $3.6 billion each year in the super that employers pay.
Recommended for you
Australia’s superannuation sector is being held back by overlapping and outdated regulation, ASFA says, with compliance costs almost doubling in seven years – a drain on member returns and the economy alike.
Two of Australia’s largest industry super funds have thrown their support behind an ASIC review into how stamp duty is disclosed in investment fee reporting, saying it could unlock more capital for housing projects.
The corporate watchdog is preparing to publish a progress report on private credit this September, following a comprehensive review of the rapidly expanding market.
The fund has appointed Fotine Kotsilas as its new chief risk officer, continuing a series of executive changes aimed at driving growth, but NGS Super’s CEO has assured the fund won’t pursue growth for growth’s sake.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
74.26 3 y p.a(%)
2
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
72.60 3 y p.a(%)
3
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
44.46 3 y p.a(%)
4
Pengana High Conviction Equities B
39.12 3 y p.a(%)
5
Pengana High Conviction Equities A
39.05 3 y p.a(%)
