ING’s clearing house makes it easier for Australian businesses

Around 30,000 Australian employers with access to ING Australia’s clearing house are now able to submit Tax File Numbers to choice funds electronically.

The new facility is a crucial development for Australian businesses, which are legally obligated to pass TFNs of their employees to all superannuation funds, including choice funds. Employers are required to pass on the TFNs of new employees within 14 days or by the next payroll period. Failure to do so carries a $1,100 penalty.

Without this clearing house facility, the additional administrative burdens for an employer to satisfy their obligations can be onerous and include:

• maintaining & updating databases of all choice funds
• verifying that choice funds have received Tax File Numbers
• develop a system for sending Tax File Numbers to the super funds (usually post or email)
• interaction with the many super funds 

Mark Pankhurst, Head of Product and Marketing for ING’s Employer Super, said “In addition to making life easy for Australian businesses, this technology also benefits members. By providing the TFN once, in advance of the contribution, the receiving fund is able to receipt member voluntary contributions and will not have to return them.

“When you consider the financial sacrifice of a member when making a voluntary contribution to super, it’s frustrating for all parties when the contribution has to be returned to the member, simply because they haven’t provided a TFN. This initiative is further evidence that ING is making life easy for its employers through e-business initiatives and a true leader in member services.”
 
In addition to the enhancements made to its clearing house, ING’s contributing employers have also benefited from at least a 70 per cent improvement in the speed of data being transferred and allocated to ING via straight through processing, especially at the peak superannuation guarantee quarter cut off time. For example, contributions allocated on 30 June 2008 for employers with over 6,000 members were processed in 15 minutes, as opposed to over 180 minutes in 2007.