ATO defends approach to SG compliance

Industry Super Australia hit out at the tax office yesterday, backing a Senate committee’s calls for the ATO to address its reactive and “problematic” approach to unpaid super.

The ATO has since released a statement outlining its work in reining in non-compliance, in particular pointing to the hundreds of millions of recovered funds for Australian workers.

“In 2015-16 we undertook around 21,000 cases that addressed SG non-compliance, raising $670 million in SG, including penalties, from a range of reviews and audits,” said Deputy Commissioner James O’Halloran.

“Since 2010-11, we have transferred almost $2 billion in SG entitlements to employee’s super funds as a result of ATO action,” she said.

Addressing suggestions that the ATO’s approach to non-compliance is reactive, Mr O’Halloran said the ATO undertakes a range of compliance activities to detect issues before they arise.

“This includes analysing our data to detect patterns in non-payment, identifying high-risk industries, and taking firm action with employers who do not cooperate with requests to ensure employee entitlements are paid on time,” Mr O’Halloran said.

“Third-party referrals from intermediaries such as super funds, employee associations, other government agencies and tax professionals are additional sources of information for compliance action.”