If you have employees commence employment on or after 1 November 2021, you may be required to request the employee’s stapled superannuation fund details from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

A stapled superannuation fund is an existing superannuation account that is linked, or ‘stapled’, to an individual employee so that it follows them as they change jobs.

This will only be required if the employee does not provide their choice of fund at the commencement of employment.

If a contribution is not made to the correct fund, such as a choice fund or stapled fund (if they exist), then the contribution will not count towards meeting the employer’s Superannuation Guarantee (SG) obligations. You can learn more about those obligations in our recent blog here.

Employers may then be required to make further contributions in order to meet their SG obligations.

Requirements of employers from 1 November 2021

You may need to request stapled superannuation fund details when:

• your new employee starts on or after 1 November 2021
• you need to make superannuation guarantee payment for that employee
• your employee is eligible to choose a superannuation fund but doesn’t.

Step 1: Offer your eligible employees a choice of superannuation fund

You need to offer your eligible employees a choice of superannuation fund and pay their superannuation into the account they provide. Employees may choose a superannuation account they already have or choose your default fund.

There is no change to this step of your superannuation obligations. If your employee has chosen a fund, you can pay contributions to the chosen fund.

Step 2: Request stapled superannuation fund details

If your employee doesn’t provide a superannuation fund, you may need to log into the ATO’s online services to request the employee’s stapled superannuation fund details. AFS can do this for you.

You’ll be able to request your employee’s stapled superannuation fund after you have submitted a Tax File Number declaration or Single Touch Payroll pay event linking you to them. There is no limit to the number of requests you can make.

Step 3: Make contributions into the stapled superannuation fund

You must pay your employee’s superannuation guarantee contributions to the stapled superannuation fund details obtained from the ATO.

You can pay into your default fund, or another fund that meets the choice of fund rules if:

• your employee doesn’t choose a superannuation fund
• the ATO has advised that your employee doesn’t have a stapled superannuation fund.

The ATO will support employers as they understand their new obligations, recognising initial non-compliance may be a result of a lack of knowledge with help and assistance as a first step to improving compliance, recognising initial non-compliance may be a result of a lack of knowledge or business readiness rather than a non-compliant attitude.

If you have any questions regarding your superannuation obligations, or would like assistance obtaining an employee’s stapled superannuation fund details, please contact us on 03 5443 0344 or email afs@afsbendigo.com.au