Super guarantee opt-out for employees with multiple employers

Employees with multiple employers can now opt-out of superannuation guarantee from all but one employer.

Employers are required to pay 9.5% superannuation guarantee for all eligible employees. But what happens if you are an employee with multiple employers? Until recently, these compulsory payments meant some employees risked unintentionally breaching their concessional contributions caps. New laws however provide a potential solution.

Legislation that passed Parliament late last month allows an employee to apply to the Commissioner of Taxation for an employer shortfall exemption certificate to opt-out of the SG system for specific employers. This certificate prevents their employer from having a superannuation guarantee shortfall if they do not make superannuation contributions for the period covered by the certificate.

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Bushfire relief from ATO obligations

The ATO has provided relief from lodgement compliance and payment obligations for those impacted by the bushfires. 

An automatic two month deferral for activity statements lodgements and payments due has been provided to those in affected postcodes.

Taxpayers can also call the ATO directly to request further assistance, such as requesting extra time to manage tax debt or lodgements, help finding lost documentation such as Tax File Numbers, reconstructing tax documentation, fast tracking refunds, interest free periods, and remittance of penalties or interest charged during the crisis.

Collins Hume partners with you to achieve greater business and lifestyle success as your trusted advisers. Call us in Ballina or Byron Bay on 02 6686 3000.

Calculating Super Guarantee: The new rules

From 1 July 2020, new rules will come into effect to ensure that an employee's salary sacrifice contributions cannot be used to reduce the amount of superannuation guarantee (SG) paid by the employer.

Under current rules, some employers are paying SG on the salary less any salary sacrificed contributions of the employee. Currently, employers must contribute 9.5% of an employee's Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) and they choose whether or not to include the salary sacrificed amounts in OTE.

Under the new rules, the SG contribution is 9.5% of the employee's 'ordinary time earnings (OTE) base'. The OTE base will be an employee's OTE and any amounts sacrificed into superannuation that would have been OTE, but for the salary sacrifice arrangement. Read more…

Amend your discretionary trust deed before 31 December 2019

Avoid NSW foreign duty and land tax surcharge

Discretionary trusts that own 'residential land' in New South Wales or hold an ownership interest in a company or unit trust that owns residential land in New South Wales must amend their trust deeds to exclude foreign persons as beneficiaries before midnight on 31 December 2019, otherwise foreign land tax and duty surcharges may apply.

The New South Wales Parliament has proposed changes that (if enacted) will deem discretionary trusts to be 'foreign persons', unless the trust deed is amended before midnight on 31 December 2019 to:  Read more…

Can the tax office take money out of your account? Your right to know

You might have seen the recent spate of media freedom advertisements as part of the Your Right to Know campaign. The prime-time advertising states that the Australian Tax Office (ATO) can take money from your account without you knowing. 

The question is, do you really know what powers the ATO have?

The ATO is one of the most powerful institutions in Australia with very broad and encompassing powers. 

Over the last few years the approach has been to work with taxpayers to ensure that the tax they owe is paid. But this level of understanding only lasts so long and they will take action where taxpayers are unwilling to work with them, repeatedly default on an agreed payment plan, or don't take steps to resolve the situation (these steps include an expectation that you go into debt to clear your tax debt). And, there are also circumstances where the ATO can swoop in where they believe there is a need to secure assets such as bank accounts if there is a risk of disposal or flight risk.

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