12 Month Amnesty for Employers

Clear Vision • May 30, 2018

The government has announced a one-off, 12 month amnesty period for previous underpayment of superannuation guarantee, predicting tougher penalties in the future once the Single Touch Payroll kicks in fully next year.

Minister of Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer announced the amnesty will set aside penalties for late payments (which are normally paid to the government) for employers to pay all super that is owed for their employees, including the rate of nominal interest.

The amnesty will run from the 24 th May 2018 to the 23 rd May 2019.

Single Touch Payroll starts for employers with 20 employees or more as of the 1 st July 2018 and the 1st July 2019 for employers with 19 employees or less. Some believe this measure was strategically announced one year out from the full implementation of Single Touch Payroll with the ATO looking at tougher penalties in the future for Superannuation Guarantee non-compliance.

This is a great opportunity for employers to come clean and tie up loose ends however it’s important to be aware that when STP kicks in, the ATO will have up to date real-time data which means they will know who is behind in payments and the penalties will be harsh. So you could say this is the breath before the plunge…. so to speak.

However the amnesty is in play, so use it wisely and make sure you’re not in the firing line come STP time.

We drew inspiration for this article from Jotham Lian at Accountants Daily

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