Important Super Changes

Find out how changes to super guarantee from 1 July 2022 will benefit casual and part time employees plus we provide an update on the First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSS).

Changes to super guarantee from 1 July 2022 will benefit casual and part time employees

It has been a long time coming, but the $450 monthly minimum wage for Super Guarantee contributions has finally been abolished, starting 1 July 2022.  This means employers will be required to make super contributions for all employees, including casual and part time employees on low incomes.

The $450 monthly minimum threshold was originally designed to reduce the administration burden on employers. However as employee super data and payments have now been digitised through SuperStream and Single Touch Payroll, the Government has agreed the threshold is no longer required.  Also, as pointed out by the Senate Economics Committee in April 2016 in its report “A husband is not a financial plan…”, the $450 threshold unfairly impacts women who comprise 63% of the 300,000 employees who don’t receive super contributions as a result¹.

Employers should also note that the rate of Super Guarantee is scheduled to increase to 10.5% of wages/salaries from 1 July 2022.  This increase is already law and is part of a staged increase in compulsory super contribution to 12% by 1 July 2025. 

Since both these changes are effective 1 July 2022, employers will need to ensure their systems and processes reflect these changes in the next few months.

Other superannuation changes

From 1 July 2022, employees will be able to make voluntary super contributions after age 67 and before age 75, without having to meet a work test. This applies to personal and spouse contributions and to salary sacrifice employer contributions. The work test² will only apply if the individual wants to claim a personal tax deduction for their own contributions.

First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSS)

Only personal contributions and salary sacrifice employer contributions can be withdrawn under the FHSS and all compulsory super guarantee contributions must remain in super until retirement. However increasingly younger members can see there are advantages in saving through super for a first home:

• Personal contributions to super can be tax deductible to the member.
• The ATO’s calculated earning rate on the contributions is higher than standard bank interest rates.
• The FHSS can offer an alternative take on the “Bank of Mum and Dad” as parents can gift money to their child, who then deposits it into super as a personal contribution.

Contractors and employees

Recently the thorny issue of when a contractor is to be treated as an employee for Super Guarantee purposes reared its head (again) in an Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) case in January 2022³.

Mr Pirie, a plumber, worked under a contract with Rickard Heating Pty Ltd that was treating him as a sub-contractor.  The AAT found that it was not relevant that Rickard P/L and Mr Pirie had agreed that he was a contractor (rather than an employee) and the parties had agreed he would be liable to pay his own super contributions.

As determined by the AAT, since Mr Pirie worked under a contract that was wholly or principally for his labour, he was an employee for SG purposes. Quoting from the Tribunal, “It is important to point out that the definition of 'employer' and 'employee' in s.12 is wider than its 'ordinary meaning', and most probably is wider than what people, even business people, would ordinarily understand it to mean.”

Employers who are using contractors may wish to review their arrangements in light of this decision. To help employers the ATO has developed an employee/contractor decision tool: http://ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Employee-or-contractor.

1. Retirement Income Review Final Report July 2020 p.45
2. The work test is 40 hours paid work over a consecutive 30 day period during the financial year the contribution is made. There is also a one-off exemption from the work test if you met the work test in the previous year and your super on the previous 30 June is less than $300,000.
3. Trustee for Virdis Family Trust t/a Rickard Heating Pty Ltd v FC of T [2022] AATA 3 22 January 2022

Important information
This document has been prepared by IOOF Investment Management Limited (IIML) ABN 53 006 695 021, AFS Licence No. 230524 as Trustee of the IOOF Portfolio Service Superannuation Fund ABN 70 815 369 818 (Fund). IOOF Employer Super is a Division of the Fund. IIML is part of the IOOF Group of companies, consisting of IOOF Holdings Limited ABN 49 100 103 722 and its related bodies corporate. This is general advice only and does not take into account your financial circumstances, needs and objectives. Before making any decision based on this document, you should assess your own circumstances or seek advice from a financial adviser and seek tax advice from a registered tax agent. Please obtain and consider the PDS before making any decision about whether to acquire a financial product. Information is current at the date of issue and may change.