Employee Superannuation - are you allowing enough time to meet your obligations?

The ATO have recently “ramped-up” their monitoring around timely payment of employee superannuation – especially for Small Business employers.

Minimum mandatory superannuation guarantee requirements are the same for all businesses, regardless of size, or number of employees.

Super guarantee (SG) is the minimum amount you must pay to avoid the super guarantee charge. Super guarantee is 10.5% of an employee’s ordinary time earnings.

Employers must pay SG contributions at least quarterly, by the quarterly due dates – 28 days after the end of each quarter to avoid the SG charge, interest and other penalties. It is important to allow at least 5 additional business days for processing by ATO Small Business Clearing House, Xero Automatic Superannuation, or other Super Clearing House, as the effective date of payment is taken to be the date the funds are credited to the employees’ super fund.

SG contributions you make for your employees, in a timely manner, are tax deductible. You can only claim the deduction in the financial year payments are made. To claim a deduction, a contribution must be made on time and in full.

Missed or late super payments may incur the SG charge. The SG charge is not tax deductible.

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