Choosing Nationwide Super as your ‘default’ fund
One topic that often causes confusion when we talk to our contributing employers is default funds.
Put simply, an employer-nominated or ‘default’ fund is the superannuation fund you will pay super contributions into for your employees if they can’t or don’t choose their own fund.
If there is an industry award
Most modern awards have a section that deals with superannuation, and details one or more default funds you can use. If the award nominates more than one fund, you can choose which of those to use as your default fund.
There may be additional clauses about super within the award, and there are rules about the types of funds that can be included (for example, being MySuper authorised). You should refer to your industry award for more details.
If there is an Enterprise Agreement
If there is a default fund nominated in your Enterprise Agreement, you must contribute to that nominated fund.
If your employees aren’t covered by an award or enterprise agreement, you still need to nominate a default fund for those who don’t make a choice of their own. If you haven’t already done so, and would like to nominate Nationwide Super as the default fund for your business, simply contact us.
Next step: Provide a Standard Choice form
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has created a Standard Choice form for both employers and employees.You must provide new employees who are eligible to choose a super fund with this form within 28 days of their start date (unless they give you details of their chosen fund first).
The form is divided into sections, with a section for the employee to complete if they wish to choose a super fund of their own, and a section which you must complete as an employer, that details your nominated/default fund. The Standard Choice Form, available to download from our Forms section, is pre-populated with our details in the relevant section.
Penalties do apply if you don’t offer eligible employees a choice of fund or if you don’t pay super into their chosen fund.
Greater detail of the superannuation obligations of a small business owner is available on our “Everything You Need To Know About Superannuation As a Small Business Owner” blog.
The Nationwide Super team are on hand to provide any help, or answer any questions you may have about the choice of fund process and your obligations.
