The ATO’s collection approach to unpaid super

If you think your employer isn’t paying your super contributions, follow the steps below:

1. Am I entitled to super? – you should confirm that you’re entitled to super before taking any further steps.
2. Go to ATO online via myGov to view super contributions that have been paid into your super fund by your employer. If your employer has commenced Single Touch Payroll reporting, you can check if your super has been paid into your super fund. Your employer will tell us how much super they’re required to pay to your fund.
3. Use the Estimate my super tool if you’re unsure how much super your employer should be paying.
4. Talk to your employer. Ask them how often they’re currently paying your super, which fund they’re paying to and how much they are paying.
5. Confirm how much your super fund has received by checking member statements from your super fund.
6. Lodge an enquiry. If you’ve completed all of the steps above and still believe your employer isn’t paying enough (or any) super – or isn’t paying to your chosen fund, you can report your employer using our online tool.

Our collection approach to unpaid super

If your employer doesn’t pay the minimum amount of super into the correct fund by the due date, they may have to pay the super guarantee charge (SGC).

We may investigate an employer’s super guarantee compliance on our own initiative or in response to an employee enquiry. If we determine that your employer (or former employer) has not complied with their SG obligations for you, or we reasonably suspect this to be the case, we may disclose details of this to you.

From 1 April 2019, the law allows us to disclose an employer’s non-compliance to affected employees even if they haven’t lodged an enquiry with us.

We prioritise the collection of unpaid SGC debts. We’ll work with employers who engage with us to address their debt. For those that don’t engage, we’ll take stronger action. This can include:

• director penalty notices
• garnishee notices.

If you’ve chosen to report your employer, we’ll keep you updated throughout the investigation. If we establish there is an SGC debt, we’ll inform you of the recovery actions we’re taking.

If we commence an investigation into your employer and you haven’t lodged an enquiry with us, we may notify you of the review. If you receive this notice, you don’t need to take any action; we will advise you of the outcome when the investigation is complete.

Any SGC we collect from your employer is distributed to your super fund.

Source: ato.gov.au