The Standard Choice form
For those employees who are eligible, you must provide the Standard Choice form, which is an Australian Tax Office form, to employees within 28 days of their start date, or within 28 days of an existing employee requesting one.
You do not need to provide the Standard Choice form to employees holding a temporary visa, although they remain eligible to choose their own super fund.
If you change your default fund, you will need to give the Standard Choice form to your employees who are in the old default fund.
You also need to keep a record of providing the Standard Choice form within the required time frame, as well as the completed Standard Choice form and any additional documentation given to you by the employee for a period of five years. Your employees can choose a fund by either completing Part A of the Standard Choice form or by providing you with the equivalent information in writing.
It’s important your employees provide all the required information when nominating a superannuation fund. If your employee is nominating an APRA regulated fund or retirement savings account, they can obtain the information required from their current fund. If your employee is nominating a self-managed super fund (SMSF), it’s important they provide the SMSF electronic service address (ESA), bank account information and supporting documentation, so that you can make contributions. An ESA is the electronic address used to send contribution data in a compliant format. For more information about paying SMSFs, including how your employees can obtain and ESA, refer to the ATO.
Single Default Account ('stapling')
Single Default Account (‘stapling’) means employers will no longer automatically create a new super account in their default fund for employees commencing employment on or after 1 November 2021 who do not choose a super fund. Instead, employers will be required to search for an employee’s existing (‘stapled’) fund by contacting the ATO and direct contributions to that fund. It’s important to note that if a member does advise the employer of their choice of super fund, the employer is then not required to contact the ATO to confirm the new employee’s stapled fund. If there is no stapled fund and no other fund nominated, super contributions can be made into the default fund.
Your default fund needs to be a complying fund that offers a minimum level of life insurance and must be MySuper authorised. MySuper was introduced by the Federal Government as part of its Stronger Super reforms and was designed to give consumers access to a simple, low-fee super product that is easy to compare with Default super contributions must be made to a MySuper authorised fund.
If you’ve chosen Australian Retirement Trust as your default fund you can rest assured that Australian Retirement Trust meets all of these requirements.
Super Fund Onboarding (SFO)
SFO is a digital tool designed to streamline the employee onboarding process and help you with the new stapling rules. It’s a time saving tool created by Beam - part of Australian Retirement Trust. With SFO, you can add new employees and invite them to validate their details and complete their super choice and tax file number (TFN) declaration digitally.
SFO is part of the suite of tools available in Employer Online – like Australian Retirement Trust Clearing House. It’s another simple way to stream your super process for your employees.
For more information about SFO, visit beamconnect.com.au/superfundonboarding
Modern Awards
Modern Awards came into effect in January 2010. Superannuation is an important part of Modern Awards, and each award will usually list a number of MySuper funds which you can pay default super contributions to. Modern Awards only apply to employees covered by the national workplace relations system, and may not cover managers or higher-income earners. If your employees fall under a Modern Award, you can use Australian Retirement Trust as your default fund if:
- Australian Retirement Trust is listed as a default superannuation fund in the Modern Award that applies to you, or
- Australian Retirement Trust is not listed as a default superannuation fund in the Modern Award but you were contributing to us for the benefit of your employees before 12 September 2008.
For more information on the superannuation guarantee call the ATO on 13 10 20, or visit the ATO website.