POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
ISA calls for crackdown on unpaid super
The penalty regime for unpaid super has again been proven to be wanting, with the Senate Estimates Committee hearing yesterday that as many as 8 out of 10 employers have got away with failing to pay super on time.
Under questioning from deputy chair of the Senate Economic Committee, Senator Chris Ketter, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) confirmed that it routinely waived all penalties for late payment of super and had not levied a single 200 per cent maximum penalty in the last five years.
The ATO also admitted that it had inappropriately waived a nominal $20 per employee administrative fee penalty up until 2017.
Industry Super Australia (ISA) this morning called for an “urgent overhaul” of the penalty regime for unpaid super in light of this testimony, saying the current approach undercut the majority of employers who were doing the right thing.
“The wholesale waiver of statutory penalties prescribed under the law for failing to pay super on time is a green light to unscrupulous employers short-changing their workers’ super,” ISA deputy chief executive, Matt Linden, said.
“The ATO’s so called ‘practical compliance approach’ is causing a textbook moral hazard where employers take the risk knowing they won’t be caught or even if they are simply pay what they should have paid anyway (with nominal interest) and walk away.”
The organisation called for minimum mandatory penalties, slamming the $20 administrative penalty as “wholly inadequate and not even a parking ticket penalty”.
Linden predicted that should weak penalty enforcement continue, “the $6 billion a year problem will continue to spin out of control”.
Recommended for you
Future Group is set to take on nearly $1 billion in funds under management (FUM) and welcome more than 100,000 new members following two significant successor fund transfers.
Insignia’s Master Trust business suffered a 1.9 per cent dip in FUA in the third quarter, amid total net outflows of $1.8 billion.
While the Liberal senator has accused super funds of locking everyday Australians out of the housing market, industry advocates say the Coalition’s policy would only push home ownership further out of reach.
Australia’s largest superannuation fund has confirmed all members who had funds stolen during the recent cyber fraud crime have been reimbursed.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
90.28 3 y p.a(%)
2
GAM LSA Private Shares AU I
37.08 3 y p.a(%)
3
DomaCom Lot 21 Chellaston Road Munno Para West SA 5115 Australia
31.44 3 y p.a(%)
4
Fidante Credit Suisse Global Private Equity
31.12 3 y p.a(%)
5
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
28.28 3 y p.a(%)
