“We are very pleased with the progress shown by APRA-regulated funds in on-boarding employers to this new system and expect momentum to continue through to the small business deadline of 30 June 2016,” said ATO deputy commissioner for superannuation James O’Halloran.

“The results confirm what we have been seeing in other data we monitor. Most large and medium [size] employers are now compliant with SuperStream and more than half of all small businesses are SuperStream ready ahead of the 30 June deadline,” Mr O’Halloran said.

Large and mid-sized businesses needed to be SuperStream compliant by 31 October 2015.

Just under half of all employers who had implemented SuperStream said the key benefit was less time required to make super contributions. One fifth said benefits were “less paperwork and cheques” and 13 per cent said the process was “more efficient/easier”.

In addition, just over 77 per cent indicated there were no significant barriers to implementation, while 63 per cent said the transition was “very easy” or "easy”.

For the September quarter, the report found the cost of processing contribution transactions from active employers was $39.3 million.

Mr O’Halloran, however, noted that it is too soon to draw any conclusions from cost data.

The report – which was completed to help the ATO measure the implementation benefits of SuperStream – is the first in a series being conducted quarterly.

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