Superannuation Guarantee increase to 10%

The Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rate will rise from 9.5% to 10% on 1 July 2021 and will then steadily increase by 0.5% each year until it reaches 12% on 1 July 2025.
If you have employees, what this will mean depends on your employment agreements. If the employment agreement states the employee is paid on a ‘total remuneration’ basis (base plus SG and any other allowances), then their take home pay might be reduced by 0.5%. That is, a greater percentage of their total remuneration will be directed to their superannuation fund. For employees paid a rate plus superannuation, then their take home pay will remain the same and the 0.5% increase will be added to their SG payments.

Single Touch Payroll for closely held payees

Small employers (19 or fewer) are required to use STP for closely held payees from 1 July 2021. Payments to closely held payees can be reported through STP in one of three ways:

• Reporting actual payments in real time – reporting each payment to a closely held payee on or before each pay event (essentially using STP ‘as normal’).

• Reporting actual payments quarterly – lodging a quarterly STP statement detailing these payments for the quarter, with the statement due when the activity statement is due.

• Reporting a reasonable estimate quarterly – lodging a quarterly STP statement estimating reasonable year-to-date amounts paid to employees, with the statement due when the activity statement is due.

Small employers that have arm’s length employees must report STP information on or before each payday regardless of the method that is chosen for reporting payments to closely held payees.

If your business has closely held employees, it will be important to plan throughout the year to prevent problems occurring at year end.

July 2021 Key Dates

Should you have any queries in relation to any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact our office on (07) 3607 7722 or email us at admin@whytegroup.com.au.