Stapled employee super funds, STP Phase 2 and Director ID’s
Stapled superannuation funds for employees
From 1 November 2021, employers need to be aware of the new requirements when hiring employees that don’t provide you with their superannuation fund details. Individuals will effectively have a superannuation fund ‘stapled’ to them which will move with them as they change jobs. This is a positive move in terms of reducing the number of small superannuation fund balances an employee can often end up with throughout their working life.
The following ATO link provides more detailed information on the steps employers need to take to attain stapled superannuation fund details when an employee doesn’t provide their superannuation information – ATO Stapled Superannuation Funds.
Single Touch Payroll (STP) Phase 2
STP Phase 2 builds on the existing STP reporting requirements which became mandatory for all employers from 1 July 2021 (or earlier depending on the number and type of employees). STP Phase 2 commences from 1 January 2022 but you may automatically qualify for a deferral depending on what payroll software you use (eg. Xero has a blanket deferral to 31 December 2022 for their users as they build out the functionality).
STP Phase 2 has been introduced to provide more detailed payroll information to the ATO (eg. information on TFN Declarations, income types and a break-down of gross wage components) and to improve the information that is shared between government agencies. It also comes with a number of benefits for employers where they may no longer need to:
- lodge TFN Declarations
- provide Employee Separation Certificates
- manually provide information to Services Australia
- provide separate remittance advices to the Child Support Registrar
Please see the following links for more information:
Director IDs
A director ID number is a unique identifier you keep with you forever and has been introduced to help prevent the use of false or fraudulent director identities. Every director in Australia will be required to apply for a director ID with the date you must apply being determined by when you become a director:
To apply for a director ID or to find out more about the new requirement, please see the following link – ABRS – Director IDs.
Please note that the ABRS system has only just gone live and you may experience some issues as it is rolled out. We did an application for a director to test it out and we were met with an error that required us to call the ABRS. It was about a 15 minute process on the phone to go through the identity checks to then be issued the director ID.
For any of our clients that attain a director ID, we ask that you please pass this on to us so that we can keep it on file and update government agencies where required.
