Super Guarantee Contribution Penalties
If an employer is late in making their superannuation guarantee contributions on behalf of an employee they must lodge a Superannuation guarantee charge statement - quarterly form and pay a penalty.
Under the old penalty system the employer would have paid:
The superannuation owing into their employee's fund
The tax office the equivalent amount
A penalty fee
An administration fee.
The money received by the tax office would then have been transferred to the employees' complying superannuation fund(s) or retirement saving(s). As a result, the employer would have effectively paid the employee's super contributions twice - once to the superannuation fund(s) or retirement savings account(s) and once to the tax office.
Under the new penalty system the employer will still pay the same fees as outlined above.
The difference is if they pay at least within 28 days after the due date, what they pay the tax office can be used to offset or reduce what is owe to the employee's superannuation fund. This avoids the employer having to double pay into an employee's super.
The effect is the penalty and administration fee still apply.
Some employers may adopt a different approach and choose to regard a (late) payment to the super fund as an early payment on account of the next quarter and pay the full guarantee charge to the tax office.
