If you are a Small Business owner who is required to pay superannuation on behalf of your employees – you can access the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, which will make your superannuation compliance obligations quick and easy. Read on….
Small Business Superannuation Clearing House
The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) is a free service you can use to make super guarantee (SG) contributions. Eligible businesses are those with 19 or fewer employees or an annual aggregated turnover of less than $10 million.
Your business can pay your SG contributions as a single electronic payment to the SBSCH. If you make super payments by EFT or BPAY using your credit card account, you may be charged a fee by your financial institution.
The SBSCH will then distribute the payments to each employee’s super fund. Your SG obligations are met as soon as your payment and instructions are accepted by the SBSCH. The SBSCH is SuperStream compliant.
Note: The ATO has regular system maintenance which can affect the availability of the SBSCH.
Features of the SBSCH
The SBSCH allows you to:
- pay super the SuperStream way – money and data is sent electronically in a standard format
- nominate a regular contribution amount for an employee
- make all your super contributions in one transaction – the SBSCH distributes super contributions to your employees’ nominated super funds securely
- ensure your SG obligations are met as soon as your payment and instructions are accepted by the SBSCH (please refer to the terms and conditions)
- access your transaction history.
Note: Any employee you have paid super for will remain on your SBSCH account for historical purposes. If you are no longer required to pay super for an employee you should go into the system and add an end date against that employee’s record. This will make them ‘inactive’ in the SBSCH.
Tips to ensure fund payment acceptance
If there is a mistake in your employee’s details, their super fund may reject your payment and send it back to us.
Before you click on the Submit button, make sure you’ve checked the accuracy and currency of the:
- Unique Superannuation Identifier (USI), commonly known as a super fund product for APRA-regulated funds
- ABN, bank account and electronic service address for self-managed super funds (SMSFs)
- super fund member account number
- fund name – use alphanumeric characters only and no symbols (including ‘&’)
- payment reference number (PRN) in the Payment Options screen (also known as an EFT code) and ensure it matches with your payment instructions.
If the payment is returned to us, we’ll contact you to ask that the information be updated within seven business days.
If you update the details, we’ll re-send the super payment to the fund.
If you don’t update the details, we’ll send the payment back to you.
If your employee’s details change after you submit a payment instruction, but before it is processed, you will need to delete the payment instruction and lodge again.
Once a payment is received by the SBSCH and sent on to the nominated fund, it can be viewed in the SBSCH Historical tab.
Date: 5th December 2019
Source: Australian Taxation office
If you require assistance setting up your Employees Superannuation Payments with the Australian Taxation Office Superannuation Clearning House contact your working professional at Coffs Coast Consulting.
Ph (02) 5606 3692.
