John McMurtrie, managing director of major superannuation administrator Link Group, said his firm is currently holding talks with the ATO about the “ridiculous” new requirement of the SuperStream legislation.
“I don’t imagine that an incoming Liberal government will want to pepper one of its core constituencies with $3,800 fines,” said Mr McMurtrie.
The question of what constitutes ‘conforming’ and ‘non-conforming’ data is very technical, and is likely to catch out a lot of small employers, he said.
Mr McMurtrie gave the example of an employer with four staff who is required to make a $400 contribution for each person every month.
“Every time you get one of them wrong you get pinged for $3,800. But for a larger employer like a Bluescope Steel or Telstra that’s neither here nor there,” he said.
Because the fine is enshrined in the legislation, the ATO (ie, the commissioner) has no discretion in the matter, said Mr McMurtrie, although it should be a relatively simple issue to unwind, he added.
The government could also “do everyone a favour” by mandating that superannuation contributions be made electronically by 2016, said Mr McMurtrie.
“In one stroke of the pen, [the government could say] that by July 2016 no cheque can be sent in to honour superannuation obligations,” he said.
About 50 per cent of the 200,000 contributions Link Group receives each month are sent via cheque, said Mr McMurtrie – although it is only 10 per cent in dollar terms.
He also highlighted the increased threshold for ‘lost’ funds moved to the ATO’s SuperSeeker website.
In August, Labor Treasurer Chris Bowen announced that the threshold would be increased from $2,000 to $4,000 on 31 December 2015, and then to $6,000 on 31 December 2016.
The money allocated to SuperSeeker is accounted for as revenue by the federal government until it is claimed, said Mr McMurtrie.
“It seems that that’s Big Brother putting a hand in your piggy bank … I think there is one section where [the Liberal Party] might say, philosophically, it’s the member’s money and they can find it by going to the ATO website,” he said.
Superannuation administrators will be required to send information about every fund on their books to the ATO by the end of October, Mr McMurtrie said.
