New standard for employer superannuation contributions

Australia currently has over 800,000 employers who are required to make superannuation contributions on behalf of their employees.
For many, the level of complexity for processing contributions to multiple funds, each with their own criteria for accepting data and payments, can be high and time consuming.
The new Superannuation Data and Payment Standard is designed to standardise the process for making contributions. This standard applies to medium to large businesses from 1 July 2014 (20 or more employees) and for small businesses from 1 July 2015 (19 or fewer employees).
The standard will help ensure employers can make employee superannuation contributions in a more consistent, timely and efficient manner without the current complexities employers face.
The standard will require employers to only make contributions electronically by providing a payment reference number that can be reconciled by the receiving fund to the data sent and payment amount made.
Furthermore, from now until the standard applies the Tax Office will offer validation services to assist employers with the information sent under the new standard. One such service will be the EmployerTICK service which allows employers and service providers to match an employee’s TFN to their superannuation fund details before a contribution is made.
Lastly, the Tax Office will provide education and support tools in relation to the new standard.
For more information click here.