Timely super guarantee data – onerous or useful?

Date: 29 August 2017

 

The Tax Institute is broadly supportive of measures designed to crack down on employer non-compliance with mandated superannuation obligations.

However, The Tax Institute is concerned that:

o   The crackdown may create unacceptable onerous compliance burdens on superannuation funds particularly those at the smaller end; and

o   The ATO will not have sufficient resources to effectively utilise the influx of data that will come with this initiative and may not be able to follow up on non-complying employers.

The Tax Institute’s Senior Tax Counsel Professor Robert Deutsch commented that, “Imposing a monthly reporting requirement on all superannuation funds may be an overly onerous compliance burden. Consideration should be given to providing some flexibility for smaller funds to report super guarantee contributions quarterly as they are less likely to have systems in place to cope with the increased compliance burden than a large fund.

“Further, while it is all well and good that the ATO is given super guarantee data in a timely manner, the benefits will only arise if the ATO can and does put the data to good use.”

Whether the initiative will achieve the intended outcomes is also in question. “We query whether this initiative will actually force non-complying employers to comply with their super guarantee obligations. We fear it may simply impose further obligations on already compliant funds”, said Professor Deutsch.

  

ENDS

 

For more information, please contact:

Professor Robert Deutsch, Senior Tax Counsel: 02 8223 0011

Stephanie Conway, Media Relations Contact: 02 8223 0011

 

 

About The Tax Institute

The Tax Institute is Australia’s leading professional association and educator in tax. Its 12,000 members include tax agents, accountants and lawyers as well as tax practitioners in corporations, government and academia. The Tax Institute supports the tax profession through education and professional development and works to continually improve tax law and its administration.