Your super is your savings for retirement. It’s important to be aware how much is being contributed, what super accounts you have and what insurance they provide.
If you've ever changed your name, address or job, you may have lost track of some of your super. Having several super accounts could mean that multiple fees and charges are reducing your overall super investment.
Check your super
You can check, consolidate, find lost super and keep track of your super online by creating or logging in to your myGov account.
You need to know how much you have contributed into your super fund to ensure you do not exceed the superannuation contribution caps.
If you take up an Australian employer’s offer to temporarily work overseas, your employer must continue to pay super contributions for you in Australia.
ATO-held super includes amounts paid to the ATO by employers, super funds or the government on your behalf that needs to go into your super. If your super fund can't contact you or the ATO are unable to find an account to transfer the money to, the ATO will hold it for you.
To find out if you have ATO-held super, use the online services for individuals. You will need a myGov account linked to the ATO.
You can use these online services to:
ATO-held super may be made up of super guarantee payments, government super payments or unclaimed super from your lost super fund.
A special account is used to hold the amounts that may be owed to you.
Super guarantee
Super guarantee is the super that your employer must contribute to your super account if you are an eligible employee. If your employer has not paid the right amount of super for you, they have to pay the gap to the ATO and they will hold it on your behalf.
There are two types of government contributions:
Your super fund must report and pay your lost super to the ATO if you are:
If you are a beneficiary of a deceased person, you may be able to claim their unclaimed super money.
From 1 July 2013, interest will be payable on all unclaimed super the ATO hold. The ATO will pay the interest when they process your claim. Generally, you do not have to pay income tax on these interest payments.
The SHA special account is a holding account designed to protect your small super amounts until they can be transferred into a super fund or retirement savings account. It is not a trust fund or super fund.
The ATO deposit co-contributions or super guarantee payments that have not been paid to a fund, into the SHA special account.
Up to 30 June 2006, the SHA special account also accepted payments on your behalf from employers who could not find a super fund to accept their contributions.
If there has been no account activity for 10 years, it becomes an inactive account
If the ATO are holding unclaimed super for you, you can transfer the money to your super account by:
The fund you transfer your money to must be a complying super fund.
You may be able to withdraw your ATO-held super by electronic funds transfer (EFT) or cheque, if you meet certain conditions.
There are two ways to see if you are eligible and withdraw your super – use the online services or complete a paper form.
Use the online services for individuals
You can use the online services to check if you're eligible and, if so, withdraw your ATO-held super and put it into your bank account.
If you worked in Australia as a temporary resident, you may be eligible to claim your super after leaving Australia. If you haven't claimed it from your super fund, it may have been transferred to the ATO.
You may receive a statement of account (SOA) for your ATO-held super.
Your SOA provides a list of transactions processed during the statement period. It shows your current account balances and any amounts due and payable for each super type or role within your ATO super account.
If you worked in Australia as a temporary resident, you may be eligible to claim your super after leaving Australia. If you haven't claimed it from your super fund, it may have been transferred to the ATO
You may receive a statement of account (SOA) for your ATO-held super.
Your SOA provides a list of transactions processed during the statement period. It shows your current account balances and any amounts due and payable for each super type or role within your ATO super account.
