The introduction of super stapling means working Australians will be attached to one super fund for life unless they choose otherwise. The measure aims to reduce the number of super accounts people may acquire throughout their working life.
The introduction of super stapling makes it even more important for employees to actively choose a super fund best suited to their circumstances and needs. Making informed choices about super reduces the potential to be ‘stapled’ to a fund that may not lead to the best retirement outcome.
The keys steps to take when onboarding a new employee from 1 November 2021 include:
Where the ATO identifies multiple funds that may be stapled to an employee, tiebreaker rules will apply:
If you are doing this for a single member and not using the ATO’s bulk upload service, the ATO expects results to be available within minutes.
If the ATO provides a stapled super fund response to an employer, they will contact the employee and advise them of the request.
Employees will receive an SMS if they have a valid mobile number in the ATO records and/or a letter (through myGov or paper) advising who has requested the information and more details on the options available to the employee.
Yes, it applies to all employers.
Existing employees aren’t affected by these changes. You must continue to make their compulsory superannuation guarantee (SG) payments into the same super fund account you do today.
Yes, you still need a default fund. If a new employee starts on or after 1 November 2021, and neither nominates a fund nor has an existing fund, you will pay their contributions to your default fund.
If an employee doesn’t have a super account –this maybe their first job – and doesn’t nominate one with a Choice of fund form, you must pay their super into your default fund.
Bulk requests are available from the ATO where the request is for over 100 staff. The ATO provides a form where employers need to request stapled super fund details for over 100 new starters at once. Bulk requests will have a service standard of up to 5 business days. The bulk request will need to be in a xls or xlsx file that can be downloaded from the ATO from 1 November 2021.
You or an authorised representative will need to log in to the ATO online services. You will then be asked to enter your employee’s details, including:
When you have entered these details, within minutes you will receive an on-screen response in the online services and confirmation that the ATO will notify your employee that you have made a stapled super fund request, as well as the fund details that the ATO provided.
No, stapling doesn’t override choice of fund. Your employees can nominate their preferred fund at any time using a Choice of fund form. Our choice form can be found on the Vision Super website.
If an employee hands you a completed, signed Choice of fund form, you must pay to their nominated fund.
Stapling commences on 1 November 2021. From 1 November 2021, employers will need to take new steps to determine the correct super fund for new employees.
Member Hotline 1300 300 820
Employer Hotline 1300 304 947
Retirement Hotline 1300 017 589