IMPORTANT INFORMATION – Employer Superannuation Obligations.
17 April 2024
| In recent times we have been receiving increased correspondence from the ATO informing us that clients have not met their employee’s superannuation obligations on time. In order to meet your superannuation obligations for your employees in full the quarterly amounts of superannuation need to be received by the employees fund by no later than the 28th of each month after the end of each quarter. If the payment is not made by this date, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO LODGE A SUPER GUARANTEE STATEMENT which will calculate your new liability ( below for reference ) this statement will also provide you with a payment slip, it is important to remember that if you are paying your obligation late you do not pay direct to the fund you pay direct to the ATO. It is now paramount that if you are making a late payment this process must be followed as the interest and penalties can be substantial. With the ATO having access to more real time data and liaising with superfunds on a regular basis they can quickly identify late payments that have been made even going back some years which the ATO expect superannuation guarantee statements to be lodged. An example of penalties that would be incurred for late payment and non-lodgement of SGC is as follows – Client has been identified by the ATO as paying their superannuation obligations late for the period ending 31st March 2023 , client has not lodged any superannuation guarantee statements but has indeed paid the superannuation liability direct to the employees superfund. The initial superannuation liability was $30,000.00 and was paid in full in early May 2023 a week late. If the superannuation forms were lodged on the 1st March 2024 the interest component would be $3,600.00 and $400.00 in ATO administration costs being a new ATO total owing of $3,900.00 due immediately. Note this amount is additional to the $30,000.00 and is purely penalties, even though the superannuation was physically paid to the fund only a week late , as no superannuation guarantee statements were lodged at the time interest in now calculated up until the date on which the SGC statements are lodged with the ATO. We understand that this process can be confusing and time consuming please remember that we are always here to guide and assist and if you have any queries in relation to superannuation and what your requirements are please don’t hesitate to contact the office. Please click here for a link which will further assist you and also provide a link to the SGC spreadsheets. |
