The Super Fund Clearing House is a free government superannuation payments clearing service for small businesses with less than 20 employees, or an annual aggregated turnover of less than $10 million.
The definition of “aggregated turnover” is the same as that adopted for the Small Business Entity concessions, i.e. annual turnover plus the annual turnover of any business you are connected with or that is your affiliate.
Eligibility for Super Clearing House Participation
An ABN is required to participate in the scheme, and registration conditions require that you are eligible to use the service both
- at the time of registration, and
- at each time the service is used.
The scheme provides administrative efficiencies for small businesses who need to manage the superannuation contributions for up to 19 employees (or meeting the maximum turnover test) potentially all of whom could have different super funds nominated for their SGC contributions.
What the SBSCH does
By allowing employers to make one single super payment to the clearing house, they hand off the job of sending that money to all the different employees’ superannuation fund bank accounts.
All the information is retained online, so that employers can get reports for reconciliation and compliance purposes.
Superannuation Funds can also register with the clearing house to get access to contributions reports and ensure their details have been accurately recorded.
All transactions, including registrations, payments and reporting are conducted online, and there is information to help employers identify correct super fund details, and comply with the default fund and choice requirements.
(A choice fund is nominated by your employee in accordance with the requirement that they are provided with a standard choice form within 28 days of commencement. The default superannuation fund is included in the standard choice form, and is where SGC contributions are paid if the employee doesn’t make a choice)。
SBSCH managed by the Tax Office
From April 2014 the administration of the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House has been carried out by the Australian Taxation Office and was integrated with ATO online services from 26 February 2018.
The SBSCH can be accessed by employers via the ATO’s online services for business or my.Gov.au. More info here.
Payments at year end
Timing of super payments is extremely important in being able to confirm contributions made within a financial year for the tiing of tax dedcutions and super guarantee compliance.
So making payments via SBSCH at the end of the year can be tricky, without knowing how quickly or efficiently the contributions will be processed by the receiving super funds.
In response to this issue, the Tax Office has issued Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2020/6 which provides that compliance resources will not be allocated to considering the timing of a contribution “provided you made the payment to the SBSCH before close of business on the last business day on or before 30 June“.
Further information
- Small Business Superannuation Clearing House – registration and other information
- Single Touch Payroll reporting
This page was last modified 2020-06-02