Planning for super payments

Guest column by David Elia, Chief Executive Officer, Hostplus

As the national superfund for the hospitality, sports, recreation and tourism industries, Hostplus would like to take this opportunity on 30 June to remind you of the importance of getting Super Guarantee (SG) contributions for any employees by their due date. We also wish to highlight a really easy way Hostplus can help eliminate the administrative burden of making super contributions via a simple and easy online tool you can use to make those payments efficiently.

The importance of making payments on time

The Australian Taxation Office requires SG contributions to be paid to a complying superannuation fund for eligible employees from the day they start with you. Generally these are employees who are paid $450 or more before tax in a calendar month. For employees under 18 they must also work for more than 30 hours per week to qualify.

For those under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010, a lower superannuation guarantee threshold applies requiring employers to make SG contributions for each month an employee (covered by the award) earns $350.00 or more in a calendar month.

Legislative requirements require that SG payments must be made at least four times a year, by the quarterly due dates outlined in the table below:

So you can see that one is looming on 28 July.

It’s worth noting that when a due date falls on a weekend or public holiday, you can make the payment on the next working day. You can also make payments more regularly than quarterly if you want to (for example, fortnightly or monthly) as long as your total SG obligation for the quarter is paid by the due date.

Ensuring that you pay contributions for eligible employees by the due date is important, as you will avoid paying the SG charge. This amount consists of:

• the contributions shortfall, based on your employee’s salary or wages rather than the generally lower ordinary time earnings base;

• plus a nominal interest component of 10 per cent per annum (calculated from the start of the relevant quarter, rather than from the date the contributions should have been made, until the date the SG charge is payable);

• plus an administration fee of $20 per employee for whom there is an SG shortfall, per quarter.

Also important to note is that any SG charge you incur cannot be claimed as a tax deduction. Further penalties may also be imposed by the ATO for failure to keep records and other offences.

Hostplus’ QuickSuper – taking the pain out of making super contributions on time

The Australian Government requires all employers to make superannuation contributions through a compliant online system. To help you make those payments with ease, if your employees are with Hostplus, we have a product called QuickSuper that's simple and easy to use.

QuickSuper allows Hostplus registered employers to make one contribution payment for all of your staff, across multiple superannuation funds with one simple, online system. This means that if your staff contribute to a range of funds, you make one payment via the QuickSuper tool and we do the rest, distributing that payment to all the funds nominated by your staff. The good news is it's free and available to Hostplus registered employers.

We are here to help

At Hostplus we are always keen to help and make fulfilling your super obligations easy. If you want to find out more about QuickSuper or require further clarification on making super payments, please do not hesitate to contact us on 1300 467 875 or visit hostplus.com.au