Since its creation in the later years of the Keating government, the superannuation industry has grown to have over AUD$1.6 trillion in funds under management.  This enormous amount of the pooling of money into a national retirement savings plan has also led to a substantial body of regulation concerning the operation of the financial system which is now one of the largest retirement savings systems in the western world.   The major pieces of legislation which govern the operation of super accounts, the payment and withdrawal of super and every other aspect of the superannuation industry are the Superannuation Contributions (Assessment and Collection) Act 1997, the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration Act) 1992, the Retirement Savings Accounts Act 1997, the Small Superannuation Accounts Act 1995, the Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999, the Superannuation Guarantee Charge Act 1992, the Superannuation Supervisory Levy Imposition Act 1998 and the Termination Payments Tax Imposition Act 1997.

Respectively, these acts deal with the administration of superannuation and the collection of superannuation tax, the administration of the Superannuation Guarantee charge, the administration of Retirement Savings Accounts and Small Superannuation Accounts including the provisions that provide tax rebates for small accounts and prevent fees being charged against very small accounts. The legislation also creates a register and a system for finding lost superannuation which can be an enormous assistance to people who need to recover superannuation which they have worked for and then forgotten to claim or where they never knew that it existed.  The Superannuation Guarantee charge was also introduced in 1992 which allows the ATO to impose a charge on the tax file of an employer where they neglect to pay the superannuation of an employee and the final major piece of legislation allows for termination payments to be ploughed into superannuation in order to avoid the imposition of the otherwise greater tax rate in the case of a termination payment.  If you have a question about the way that the law applies to your superannuation please do not hesitate to contact us.  We have expert superannuation lawyers available who can assist you with your inquiry.