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Employer Super Obligations

You are considered an employer if you employ workers under a verbal or written employment contract on a full-time, part-time or casual basis. You may also be considered an employer if you make payments to a worker under a contract.

If you are an employer, you need to understand and meet your superannuation guarantee obligations.

These obligations include:
• Making super contributions for your eligible employees by the cut off dates each quarter
• Making at least the minimum 9% contribution amount of the earnings base (generally ordinary times earnings, from 1 July 2008 ordinary time earnings should always be used) for each eligible employee
• Paying the superannuation guarantee charge to the Tax Office if you don’t make the required super contributions by the due dates
• Checking if any of your employees are eligible for a choice of super fund
• Providing your eligible employees with a Standard choice form
• Passing on your employees’ tax file numbers to their super fund
• Paying super contributions for any eligible contractors
• Keeping records of your super contribution payments and that you have offered your eligible employers choice of super fund.
• Use the ATO web-based Superannuation guarantee eligibility decision tool to check if your employee is eligible for super and Superannuation guarantee contributions calculator to see how much super you should be paying for your eligible employees.
• Use the ATO Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) statement and calculator tool to calculate your SGC liability and prepare the SGC statement to be lodged with the Tax Office.

Super payment cut-off dates:
It’s important to pay the correct amount of super by the cut-off date each quarter to avoid paying the Superannuation guarantee charge to the Tax Office.
These dates are:

If the quarterly cut-off date falls on a weekend or public holiday, you should make the payment by the next working day.

You can choose to make super payments more regularly than quarterly. For example fortnightly or monthly, so long as the total amount you owe each quarter is paid by the quarterly cut-off dates.

• ATO have an annual calendar of key superannuation lodgment dates to help you meet your obligations.

If you pay any super contributions directly to a fund after the cut off date, you have to pay the full super guarantee charge to the Tax Office. You need to complete a Superannuation guarantee charge statement – quarterly (NAT 9599) to make the charge payment.

• Remember that any superannuation contributions that you make are tax deductible, however the Superannuation guarantee charge is not.

If you need further assistance with superannuation obligations you can either contact us at CKG Partners or go to the ATO website – www.ato.gov.au