ATO offers COVID-impacted employers help with SG amnesty
20 July 2020
5
min read
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is sticking with the Superannuation Guarantee amnesty deadline of 7 September 2020, but is offering assistance to employers impacted by COVID-19 that want to participate in the amnesty.
You may wish to apply for the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) amnesty, but be concerned you may not be able to pay the liability due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on your business.
The ATO is offering to work with COVID-impacted employers to participate in the amnesty and make payments.
The ATO offer is an acknowledgement of the difficult times the community has been experiencing as a result of COVID-19 and the 2019-2020 bushfires.
However, the law does not allow us to vary the due date for lodgement of an amnesty application,” the ATO said.
COVID-19 dispensations for employers
The ATO has said it would work with employers financially impacted by COVID-19 to make a payment plan to help an employer to continue making payments.
The plan may include flexible payment terms and amounts, which can be adjusted if the employer’s circumstances change.
It may also include potentially extending the payment plan to beyond the end of the amnesty period in September. However, under this arrangement only payments made by 7 September 2020 will be deductible.
The ATO may disqualify you from the amnesty and remove amnesty benefits. Learn how that would work on the ATO website.
On 6 March 2020 the Australian government introduced a superannuation guarantee amnesty for employers to “self-correct” past unpaid SG amounts.
The amnesty allows employers to disclose and pay previously unpaid SG payments, including nominal interest, that they owe their employees from between 1 July 1992 to 31 March 2018.
If you qualify for the amnesty, you:
- will be able to claim a tax deduction for the super guarantee charge (SGC) amounts you pay to the ATO by 7 September 2020
- won’t be required to pay the administration component ($20 per employee per quarter) of the SGC
- won’t have a Part 7 penalty applied, or any other benefits deemed by the ATO.
To apply for the amnesty, you must:
- download the approved SG amnesty form (XLS 613KB)
- complete one form per quarter using the instructions contained in the form
- check the amounts are correct and there are no errors on your form
- complete the declaration to confirm you are applying for the amnesty
- save the form as an .xls file type.
You must keep records for five years after your disclosure that identifies the employees and amounts of SGC you have disclosed.
What to do
If you need assistance, simply give our Employer Solutions Team a call
or to visit the ATO website for more information.