Understanding your super responsibilities

Super is one of the biggest financial investments your employees will ever have. It’s money saved throughout their working life and invested so they’ll be better off when they retire. That’s why the Super Guarantee was legislated – to help Australians with saving for their future retirement by setting the minimum amount of superannuation employers must pay to eligible employees

All eligible workers aged 18 years or older are entitled to receive SG contributions regardless of how much they earn. Workers under the age of 18 are only eligible for SG contributions if they work more than 30 hours per week. For more information visit the ATO website. 

Rest members can choose from a diverse range of investment options which gives them the option to have more control over how their money is invested.

Our investment options include a mix of asset classes such as shares, property, bonds and cash, with varying levels of potential risk and return to suit member needs. If members don’t make a choice of option, we'll invest their super in our MySuper product – the Growth investment option.

  Learn more about how Rest invests here. 

As a business owner we know your priority is ensuring your business’s success and profitability. Paying yourself super is generally placed at the bottom of the list which means many business owners neglect their own super.

Super for business owners is just as important as super for your employees. Compliant superannuation payments may be eligible to be taxed at a lower rate than your marginal rate and count towards your savings pool to help you achieve your retirement goals.

A default fund is the super fund that you pay an employee's super contributions into if they don’t nominate their own fund or have a stapled fund (an employee’s existing super fund that is ‘stapled’ to them for the duration of their career, unless they choose another fund).

By law, all employers must select a default super fund that offers a MySuper product. Employers are required to pay all contributions made for employees who have not exercised choice of fund and do not have a stapled fund to the selected default fund. These default superannuation contributions will be invested in the MySuper product of the default fund.

MySuper is a type of super product designed to have simple features and low-cost. These products were introduced by the Government to help employers compare MySuper products more easily irrespective of which fund provides them based on a few key features. Rest’s MySuper product is the Growth investment option.

The default super fund that you choose must be:

• a complying fund (which is one that satisfies the requirements under superannuation law)
• registered by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to offer a MySuper product
• meet SuperStream requirements, which means employee SG contributions and data are sent electronically in a standard format.

If you are interested in choosing Rest as your default fund, you can speak to a business specialist about how Rest can help your business.

Industrial awards set the minimum standards that an employer must pay their employees within an industry, which also applies to their choice of super fund.

Before selecting a default fund, check if you are under any state award or industrial agreement as your super fund may already be nominated for you.

You can see if your industry is part of an award on the Fair Work Commission website.

As an employer, it is important to note that the privacy rules covering all personal information held by organisations regulate, among other matters, the way organisations collect, use, disclose, keep secure and give people access to personal information.

In some cases, you may be required to provide Rest with personal information about your employees to enable us to administer their accounts.

All information provided to Rest is treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy as outlined on our website. It is also important that you advise your employees where you are required to provide us with their personal information.

Choice of Fund legislation allows eligible employees to choose which super fund their contributions are paid into. However, if they don’t make a choice you are required to undertake a stapled fund search using the tool on the ATO’s website. If there is no stapled fund and your employee has not made a choice, you can then pay the SG contributions into your default fund. Learn more about Super Stapling here.

As an employer, you are responsible for identifying which employees are eligible for choice based on their employment circumstances and offering them a choice of fund using the Standard Choice Form.

As an employer you are responsible for identifying which employees are eligible to choose their fund.

Employees can generally choose their super fund if they are:

• employed under a federal award
• employed under a former state award, now known as a ‘notional agreement preserving state award’
• employed under another award or agreement that does not require super contributions, or
• not employed under any state award or industrial agreement (including contractors paid principally for their labour).
• employed under an enterprise agreement or workplace determination made on or after 1 January 2021 .
  

Employees may not be eligible to choose a super fund if:

• they are under a state industrial award
• they are under a preserved state agreement
• they are under a federal industrial agreement such as an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA)
• they are under a pre-reform AWA, pre-reform certified agreement, collective agreement
• they are under a old industrial relations (IR) agreement, individual transitional employment agreement (ITEA)
• they are under a workplace determination, or enterprise agreement
• they are in a defined benefit fund or are a member who has already reached a certain level of benefit in the applicable defined benefit fund.
• their super fund undergoes a merger or acquisition
  
• they're on a temporary working visa.
  

For those employees who are eligible, you must provide a Standard Choice of Fund Nomination form to them within 28 days of their start date. If they do not provide their fund details, you must conduct a stapled fund search using the ATO tool, and if no fund is found, you can pay their contributions into your default fund.

You can find additional resources to use during the onboarding process to help your employees learn about super here.  

Failure to pay super can result in the ATO applying a penalty known as the SG charge. It may include the SG shortfall, interest and an administration fee which is not tax deductible and will result in an added expense to your business.

If you are a Rest employer, you can pay super online through one of the following online methods:

Supported by Rest:

1. Directly with Rest using your online account - EmployerAccess
   
   
2. Clearing house, accessible via EmployerAccess, SCH Online*

Alternative options:

1. Alternate clearing house provider. Fees and charges may apply. You should refer to the clearing house provider for more information. 
   
   
2. The ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is available if you have 19 or fewer employees or have an annual aggregated turnover of less than $2 million.
   
   
3. Accountant or payroll provider. Your accountant or payroll provider may be able to arrange payment of super for your employees. Fees and charges may apply. You should contact your accountant or payroll provider for more information. 
   

* SCH-Online is operated by The Superannuation Clearing House Pty Limited (ABN 15 086 576 721), a corporate authorised representative (representative number 290290) of the product issuer, Pacific Custodians Pty Limited (ABN 66 009 682 866), Australian Financial Services License No. 295142.

Rest does not issue or arrange the issue of SCH Online products and/or services. Rest does not recommend, endorse or express an opinion about SCH Online. As such, Rest does not accept liability for any loss or damage you incur in connection with your reliance on SCH Online. Rest does not receive any commissions or other benefits from Pacific Custodians Pty Limited as a result of your use of SCH Online. 

A clearing house allows you to pay all your employees at the same time, no matter which fund they are with. Generally, the employer makes one bulk payment to the clearing house and then the clearing house distributes the required payments to your employees’ super funds on your behalf.

Using a clearing house may not be appropriate in all circumstances. You should consider your options based on your circumstances and also the relevant product disclosure statement before making a decision. 

The government requires employers to keep records of:

• how your employee SG contributions are calculated
• transactions of SG contributions for each employee
• evidence you have offered eligible employees a choice of super fund and provided a Standard Choice Form to all eligible employees.
• employees not eligible to be offered choice
• the nominated default fund and MySuper product offered to employees.

Generally records must be kept for at least 5 years and written in English or can be easily accessed and converted into English.