SuperStream is the way businesses must pay employee superannuation contributions to super funds. SuperStream transmits money and information electronically across the super system – employers, super funds, service providers and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Advantages include:
• Employers are able to make all their super contributions in a single transaction, even if the payments are going to multiple super funds
• Super contributions and rollovers are processed faster, more efficiently and with fewer errors
• People are more reliably linked to their super, reducing lost accounts and unclaimed monies
Some online accounting software packages include SuperStream for employers – for example MYOB and Xero. If you have this type of accounting software, you can contact the software provider and arrange registration for SuperStream. Transfer of payments and the associated information will then be completed via your online accounting software.
If you do not have online accounting software then you are required to register with the government superannuation clearing house. Once set-up you will be able to lodge your super returns with the ATO and payments with the clearing house. The clearing house will then complete the required payment and information transfer to the appropriate super funds for your employees.
The ATO Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is free for small businesses with 19 or fewer employees, or a turnover of less than $2 million a year.
The employee information required for setting-up SuperStream includes the employee’s tax file number (TFN), their fund’s ABN and their fund’s electronic details. The electronic information required for employees with industry or retail superannuation funds is the fund’s unique superannuation identifier (USI). If your employee has a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) then they will need to provide you with their fund’s ESA (electronic service address).
Author: Brigette Liddelow
Email: brigette@faj.com.au
