Under the Superannuation Guarantee laws, employers are required to make at least a minimum level of superannuation contributions on behalf of employees or face large tax penalties.

The Superannuation Tab of the Employee’s Details allows you to record the superannuation details for your employee to ensure you contribute the appropriate amount as required.

You can also detail any employee contributions -where the employee has requested you to deduct an amount of superannuation from their after-tax income -and pay this amount to a superannuation fund on their behalf.
 

1. Employer Superannuation:

Record the details of the superannuation fund used for contributions made by the employer.
 

Superannuation Fund:

Choose a fund from the drop-down list, or if a new fund needs to be created, click on the [Add] button. Complete the required information about the fund, and click [Save]. Clicking [Cancel] will exit without saving.

Record the Employee Account Number as provided by the employee. If the employee does not currently have an account number, this can be recorded later but must be completed before recording super payments.
 

Calculation Options:

Specifying how the employee superannuation contributions are to be calculated is one of the most complicated aspects of being an employer, because the amount of superannuation you must contribute is determined by awards, workplace agreements and the Tax Office superannuation guarantee legislation.

Under the superannuation guarantee legislation, you must contribute 10.5% of the employee’s ‘earnings base’. The ‘earnings base’ can vary depending on awards and agreements, but it cannot be less than ‘ordinary time earnings’. In the Cashflow Manager program, ordinary time earnings is the amount you pay employees for their normal hours of work. The program does not automatically include leave loading, overtime, non-performance bonuses, and salary sacrifice; these options need to be ticked to be included in the superannuation calculation.

Consequently, you are given several options to calculate super.

1. Pay X percent on ordinary time earnings where X is nominally 10.5% to meet the Superannuation Guarantee Laws, but can be changed.

• You can also choose to pay superannuation on items that are not included in ordinary time earnings calculation (such as leave loading, overtime, non-performance bonuses and each type of salary sacrifice) by ticking the appropriate boxes. For example, if an employee has fringe benefits deducted as salary sacrifice, but the employer has agreed to also pay superannuation on this amount, check the box next to Salary Sacrifice Fringe Benefits for inclusion when calculating super amounts. The same applies to overtime and the other options.

1. Pay X percent on Y dollars per pay is for entering a percentage of a set dollar amount to be calculated for super, where the percentage and the dollar amount can be specified.
2. Pay X dollars per pay specifies an amount of superannuation is to be paid per pay regardless of the pay details.

Please Note: RDO (Rostered Days Off) Hours paid are not included in superannuation calculations as the superannuation is calculated from normal hours prior to time being held back for the RDO.

Other Options:

If no superannuation is to be contributed by the employer at all, tick the box next to do not calculate super for this employee. All fields relating to employer contribution will be disabled.

If the employee is under 18 years of age and has worked 30 hours or less in a pay period, or the employee is 70 years of age or over, the employer is not required to pay super. Tick the box next to Calculate super regardless of employee’s age to override these rules.
 

Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions:

From the 2009/2010 financial year employers are required to include ‘Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions’ on the employee’s PAYG Payment Summary and in the End of Year information supplied to the ATO. If your employer contributions are more than the amount required under the superannuation guarantee law, an industrial agreement, the trust deed or governing rules of a super fund, or a federal, state or territory law and the amount you contribute was influenced by the employee, see the information on ‘Reportable Contributions’.
 

2. Employee Superannuation:

This option is available when employees request their employers to deduct superannuation from their after-tax pay and send it to the superannuation fund on their behalf.

This is NOT used where the employee has foregone some salary or wages under a salary sacrifice agreement and had the employer contribute additional superannuation from their pre-tax pay.
 

Superannuation Fund:

Choose a fund from the drop-down list, or if a new fund needs to be created, click on the [Add] button. Complete the required information about the fund, and click [Save]. Clicking [Cancel] will exit without saving.

Record the Employee Account Number as provided by the employee. If the employee does not currently have an account number, this can be recorded later but must be completed before recording super payments.
 

Calculation Options:

There are two options.

1. Pay X percent of Gross pay where X is a specified percentage of the gross pay. The employer will withhold this amount from wages to be paid to the super fund on the employee’s behalf.
2. Pay X dollars per pay where X is a specified amount for contribution to the chosen fund.

In either case, an employee cannot contribute more than their net wages. The employee contribution is derived after all allowances, salary sacrifice, tax, deductions and union fees are taken into account from gross wages.

3. Reportable Superannuation Contributions:

From the 2009/2010 financial year employers are required to include ‘Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions’ on the employee’s PAYG Payment Summary. Reportable employer super contributions are those contributions you make for an employee where all of the following apply:

• your employee influenced the rate or amount of super you contribute for them, and
• the contributions are additional to the compulsory contributions you must make under any of the following:
• superannuation guarantee law
• an industrial agreement
• the trust deed or governing rules of a super fund
• a federal, state or territory law.

Please Note: We are unable to provide Tax Advice. If you are unsure as to whether amounts are reportable or not, please contact the Tax Office or your Tax Professional.