As the 2014/15 financial year comes to a close businesses need to start paying attention to the government’s latest regime, SuperStream. SuperStream is a government reform aimed at improving the efficiency of the superannuation system for Australian businesses. It provides a simplified process to digitally make employee super payments and at the same time report those payments to the relevant employee superannuation funds.
The following is a video from the ATO explaining SuperStream the new data and payment standard for superannuation:
From 1 July 2014 businesses that employ 20 or more employees were supposed to have started making contributions using SuperStream. However, they had twelve months reprieve to ensure it would be setup and functioning by 1 July 2015.
From 1 July 2015 businesses employing 19 or fewer employees will be required to start making contributions using SuperStream. They too will have a twelve month reprieve period to ensure they put the necessary systems in place to be compliant by 1 July 2016.
What do you need to do to make sure you are SuperStream compliant? You could:
Upgrade to a software solution that is SuperStream compliant;
Use a commercial clearing house;
Approach a service provider who can take care of your SuperStream compliance for you; or
Outsource your payroll and SuperStream processing to a third party.
In a recent ATO webinar they outlined that essentially businesses will need to move to an electronic form of record keeping for payroll purposes to ensure compliance with SuperStream.
If you’re looking to upgrade your software our recommendation would be to upgrade to Xero, the world’s leading online accounting software. Xero is a simple but powerful online accounting software package that can help manage your business but also help you to be SuperStream compliant.
The following is a video of how easy it is to get up and running and be SuperStream compliant with Xero:
Once you find a solution and system to be SuperStream compliant you will need to obtain the following information for all of your employee’s super funds:
- All Funds:
- Fund’s ABN
- Employee tax file number (TFN)
- APRA-regulated Funds Only:
- Unique Superannuation Identified (USI)
- SMSF’s:
- Bank account details
- Electronic service address
Once you have this information you can then update your software with that information or provide it to a service provider.
If you need help to assist you become SuperStream compliant please contact us on (07)3839 8869.