Following Royal Assent of the ‘Your Future, Your Super’ legislation, new Superannuation Fund rules apply surrounding a new employee’s superannuation account, which will now follow them from job to job unless they make an active choice to nominate an alternative.
As of 1 November 2021, a Superannuation Fund will be linked, or ‘stapled’, to the individual so that it follows them as they change employment. Alongside this, employers will no longer be able to choose their default Super Fund for new employees who fail to nominate a Superannuation Fund at the commencement of their employment.
The change aims to reduce account fees by stopping new super accounts from being opened every time an employee starts a new job.
As an Employer, what do I need to do?
As a business owner or manager, you need to request ‘stapled’ Super Fund details of your new employees (including contractors) and actively confirm what Super Fund is ‘stapled’ to that individual.
To do so, you or your authorised representative will be required to log into the ATO’s Online Services and go to ‘Employee Super Accounts’ to request associated superannuation account information.
Where the ATO identifies a ‘stapled’ account for the individual, the employer must pay contributions into that account. Likewise, where the ATO reports no pre-existing ‘stapled’ account identified, the employer must create an account with their nominated default Super Fund and make the corresponding contributions. Where an employer fails to meet the choice of Super Fund obligations, additional penalties may apply.
We've highlighted the steps by employers required to be undertaken below:
| STEP 1: Offer your new eligible employees a choice of Super Fund | Provide all new employees with a Super Choice Form and pay Super Guarantee Contributions into the account nominated on the form. |
| STEP 2: Request 'Stapled' Super Fund details | Where the employee does not choose a Super Fund, you must request their 'stapled' superannuation fund details from the ATO's online services platform. |
| STEP 3: Pay super into the 'Stapled' Super Fund or a default Super Fund |
Where a 'stapled' fund is identified, the employee's superannuation contributions must be paid into the fund provided. Where the employee has not chosen a fund and does not have a 'stapled' superannuation fund linked to them, superannuation contributions can be paid into a newly created account in the employers' chose default fund. |
In the table below, we’ve also highlighted various on-boarding scenarios and the process required to be undertaken in-line with the new legislation:
| New Employee Scenario | Previous On-boarding Process | On-boarding Process from 1 November 2021 |
| New employee has an existing (stapled) Super Fund but makes no choice of fund when joining employer | Employer opens new account for employee in default Super Fund and makes contributions to it | Employer contacts ATO to find employee's stapled Fund and makes contributions to it |
| New employee has no existing (stapled) Super Fund and makes no choice of Fund when joining employer | Employer opens new account for employee in default Super Fund and makes contributions to it. | Employer contacts ATO to find employee's stapled Super Fund and when advised no stapled Fund exists, makes contributions to default fund |
| New employee has an existing (stapled) Super Fund but chooses new Fund via an ATO Standard Choice form | Employer makes contributions to the employee's chosen fund | Employer makes contributions to the employee's chosen fund. |
Is there any action required on this for my existing employees?
The new ‘stapled’ superannuation measures do not apply to existing employees who commenced employment prior to 1 November 2021. Therefore, no action is required by an employer.
For More Information
The AGR advisor team are on-hand to assist with the requesting ‘stapled’ Super Fund details for new employees as needed. Should you require support in this matter or to answer any questions, please contact our office on (07) 3002 2699 | info@agredshaw.com.au.
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