Your future, your super

 In October 2020, the Federal Government introduced Your Future, Your Super (YFYS)  reforms designed to reduce costs in the superannuation system and make super work harder for members.  

One of the measures, is that an individual’s super account will be stapled to them and follow them as they change employers.  

This measure will impact the way you onboard new employees. 

Stapling

From 1 November 2021, when you hire a new employee, you will need to pay their super into their most active super account, unless they make a choice.  

This change may require you to amend your onboarding process, where your new employee does not complete a Choice of Fund form. 

If your employee does not make a choice, you must contact the ATO* and search for an active super account and make SG payments into that account. If your employee doesn’t have an active super account, you can pay their super into your default fund.  

Please note, where your employee completes a Choice of Fund form, stapling will not apply and there is no change to the process of where you must pay their super.  If they do not complete a Choice of Fund form, the following ‘stapling’ process will apply: 

• Login to the ATO portal and search for your employee's most active super account
• Pay your employee's super into their active super account, or
• If there's no active account, pay into your default fund.

What you need to do

Although there is still some time before the changes take effect, there are things you can do now to ensure you are ready. 

Here is some brief information on how to use the ATO’s Online Service to search for a super fund; full details can be found on the ATO website. 

Make sure you have the right permissions with the ATO 

Login to the ATO’s online service and update the access levels of your authorised representatives. 

Also, before you can request details of an employee's stapled super fund, you must have lodged either a Single Touch Payroll event or a Tax File Number (TFN) declaration. 

Search for your employee’s stapled super fund  

1. Log into  ATO online services.   

2. Enter your employee's details, including their: 

• TFN – if your employee doesn’t provide their TFN, there is an exemption code you can use but this may result in processing delays. 
• full name – including ‘other given name’ if you know them 
• date of birth 
• address (residential or postal), if no TFN was provided. 

3. The result will be displayed in real-time on your screen. The ATO will also notify your employee of the stapled super fund request and the fund details that were provided. 

4. Once you have been provided with the active super fund details, you will need to pay the employee’s SG into that fund. 

5. If the ATO does not find an active fund for your employee, you will need to pay their SG payments into your default fund. 

What happens if I don’t have to offer my employee a choice of super fund? 

You don’t need to offer a choice of super fund to some employees, but you may still need to request their stapled super fund details from the ATO. This includes employees that are either: 

• temporary residents 
• covered by an enterprise agreement or workplace determination made before 1 January 2021. 

Need more information? 

Our National Client Service Team can give you practical assistance on all things super. Contact us today to organise a meeting with a member of our team.