There’s an unlikely user of the government’s current amnesty for employers who underpaid SG – a Sydney superannuation fund, which is currently reimbursing shortfalls to staff.
Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund underpaid SG to staff for about eight and a half years after the Australian Taxation Office updated its guidance, meaning the fund should have included annual leave loading payments paid in November each year in the base for calculating SG. However it did not do so.
The error in calculation meant 165 current and former ACSRF staff were underpaid a total of $76,921 between October 2009 and March 2018, the fund confirmed in a statement to Financial Standard.
The fund said it has paid annual leave loading SG since November 2018 and updated its payroll to avoid future occurrences.
Last Wednesday, it sent the $76,921 (plus $46,821 in interest) to the ATO. The roughly $123,743 total bill was funded out of its staff salary budget, the fund said.
Former staff of the fund this month received letters signed by its head of people and culture Sandy Rimagmos, alerting them of the SG shortfall remediation to their accounts, with a 10% p.a. interest on net shortfall as stipulated by the ATO.
According to the letter, ACSRF enlisted KPMG to conduct a review of the payroll data up to 31 March 2018.
The catch up SG contributions fall within the government’s SG Amnesty which runs until September 8, after being passed earlier this year. This means the fund will not be subject to any penalties for the late payment of SG.
The fund said SG calculations at its employer partners were not affected.
ACSRF is currently exploring a merger with NGS Super, in what could create a $21.5 billion industry fund. ACSRF’s current chief executive Greg Cantor is slated to lead the combined fund, with NGS Super’s current chief executive Laura Wright to move into a deputy chief role.
