Make company directors own their SG failures say super funds

Directors of companies which fail to meet their superannuation guarantee (SG) obligations should be identified as non-compliant by both the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) via their company director identification numbers.

That is one of the key recommendations of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia in its pre-Budget submission along with the recommendation that the ATO also be permitted to alert employees where it detects potential SG non-payment.

It said the ATO should be permitted to send alerts to employees in regard to the non-payment of SG.

“Over a number of years, superannuation funds have made significant investment in the SuperStream member contribution and transaction reporting functions to provide the ATO with as timely and accurate member data as possible,” it said. “Where SG contributions are concerned, through the Affiliation of Superannuation Practitioners (ASP), super funds continue to work productively with the ATO to help identify and address data quality issues, aligning the STP and Member Account Transaction Service (MATS) reporting and helping to improve the ATO’s compliance capabilities.”

“As it develops a more sophisticated, preventative compliance approach to SG, ASFA understands the ATO will build analytical models to better detect when contributions are expected but have not been received, and therefore when contributions are at risk of not being paid during future periods.”

“In addition to pursuing compliance activity with employers through this improved data ASFA suggests the ATO sends alerts to impacted employees, notifying them of the potential non-payment through the contact details it holds,” it said.

Elsewhere in its submission, ASFA has also suggested that the ATO have the discretion to compel employers who fail to manage quarterly SG reporting and payments to report and pay the SG more frequently.

“It is also suggested that the ATO be given a discretion to require non-compliant employers to communicate to new employees that the employer has not met all of its SG obligations in the previous 2 years,” the ASFA submission said.