What Details to give Your Employer about Your SMSF

You need to give your employer details about your SMSF to allow your employer to make contributions to your SMSF using the government tool called SuperStream. If you are using an SMSF Accounting Service they will be able to provide you the details to give your Employer directly.

An exception to using SuperStream is when your related family business or you as a self-employed person or sole trader make contributions to your SMSF. The contributions can be made as a direct deposit or your family business can elect to use SuperStream, anyhow. However, if you also receive contributions from say McDonalds or some other third-party unrelated employer your SMSF must comply with SuperStream rules to receive those contributions.

An SMSF needs an electronic service address (ESA) to receive SuperStream data from your employer, the ESA for all SMSF Australia clients is ‘smsfdataflow’ all lowercase and one word.

The data with the contribution detail is transferred electronically using SuperStream and the payment is made using an electronic transfer or via Bpay.

Your ESA is like a digital post office.  It is not unique to a fund or a member of the fund. A number of people can use the same post office but specific details of your SMSF are unique.

An employer requires information about your SMSF which will be provided to you during the SMSF Setup process and include:

• the name of your SMSF
• your SMSF’s ABN
• the fund’s BSB and bank account number
• an electronic service address (ESA)

The first three points are easy to identify and provide to your employer.

An ESA is often provided as part of the specialised super software used by the fund’s accountant, tax agent, administrator or some banks.

A SMSF can only have one ESA. Both your employer and the ATO need to know what it is. If you don’t want to use the ESA available as part of the fund’s administration or the fund’s administrator does not have access to an ESA a member can request an ESA from another provider. Most ESA providers offer free or low-cost service.

Tip– An ESA is also required to make or receive rollovers and to release super monies in relation to a release authority. Not all ESAs provide all services. Check if your chosen ESA can provide rollover and release authority services as well as contribution services. The ATO maintains a list of EDA providers and the services
they provide.

How Can I Advise My Employer of My SMSF Details

You can use the following:

• your employer’s Human Resources onboarding, accounting or payroll software directly
• ATO superannuation standard choice form can be downloaded from the ATO website and when completed return to your employer – you will also need to provide evidence that your SMSF is an ATO regulated super fund which can be obtained from ‘superfundlookup.gov.au’