GO2 faces late super penalty

Belmont-based recruitment business The GO2 People may have to pay more than $3.1 million to the Australian Taxation Office after failing to pay superannuation on time.

The ASX-lister discovered it had paid superannuation in GO2 entities late after completing a review and reconciliation of its past superannuation payments between July 1 2018 and June 30 2021.

GO2 has estimated a $2.6 million potential liability on account of the review, which the business says it has since self-reported via a superannuation guarantee charge statement to the ATO.

The charge is applied to a business if it fails to pay an employee’s minimum superannuation guarantee amount on time and to the right fund, according to the ATO.

In a statement to the ASX, the business said the payments were paid late “only by a matter of a few days” and emphasised that all employee superannuation was paid.

“These further amounts now potentially payable are in relation to late payments only - in many cases a matter of one or a few days due to a misinterpretation of the due date definition,” the statement read.

“The company has recently implemented changes in both management and internal processes to ensure that all future superannuation payments comply with the relevant legislation.”

GO2 also faces an automatic penalty of up to 200 per cent, but believes it can have 90 per cent of this penalty remitted on given it has self-reported the matter. 

On that basis, GO2 has calculated additional penalities at $531,072.

In August 2021, GO2 was issued a statement for an outstanding amount of $862,851 regarding superannuation guarantee charges by the ATO, which prompted the business’s further internal review.

GO2 is in a trading halt and last traded at 3.7 cents.