Employers get ready – there’ll soon be an extra step involved when it comes to hiring new employees. From 1 November 2021, employers will need to determine if a new employee has a “stapled”super fund and request the details from the ATO where a new employee has not nominated a super fund.

What is a Stapled Super Fund?

A stapled super fund is essentially an existing super account that is linked – or “stapled” – to an individual and follows them throughout their job changes.

Currently, when a new employee starts a new job they are eligible to choose the super fund that their super guarantee contributions will go to. If they do not choose their own fund, the super contributions will be paid into the employer’s default fund. The stapling change aims to reduce unnecessary account fees by avoiding having a new super account opened every time a person starts a new job.

What You Need to Know

You may need to request stapled super fund details when:

• Your new employee starts on or after 1 November 2021
• You need to make super guarantee payments for that employee
• Your employee is eligible to choose a super fund but doesn’t

To ensure you are ready for this change you need to have full access to Online Services for business. Within here, you will need to check you have the required access levels. You’ll need to have the “Employee Commencement Form” permission in order to request a stapled fund.

What You Need to do From 1 November 2021

STEP 1: Offer your eligible employees a choice of super fund

You need to give your eligible new employees a Super Standard Choice Form and pay their super into the account they tell you on the form. Most employees are eligible to choose what fund their super goes into.

There is no change to this step of your super obligations.

STEP 2: Request stapled super fund details

If your employee doesn’t choose a super fund, you may need to log into Online Services and go to “Employee Super Accounts” to request their stapled super fund details. We can do this step for you.

The ATO will provide your employee’s stapled super fund details after they have confirmed that you are their employer. If the ATO has provided a stapled super fund result for your employee, you must pay their super using the stapled super fund details provided to you.

STEP 3: Pay super into a default fund

You can pay into a default fund, or another fund that meets the choice of fund obligations if:

• Your employee doesn’t choose a fund
• The ATO has advised you that your employee doesn’t have a stapled super fund