Struggling to pay your super? Unfortunately, super is one of the things to get overlooked, when things get tough.

Generally, if you as a business owner don’t pay your suppliers, they will not deal with you anymore and you can’t run your business. So you keep them happy…

If you don’t pay the tax office, they may take a while before chasing you. Eventually they do… So you try to keep them happy.

Superannuation is one of the things that may take a long time before anyone notices which is why lot of struggling business owners put it down the bottom of their “to pay” list.

If this is you, you need to be aware that you have legal obligation to pay super at least each quarter, within 28 days after the end of the quarter.

Moreover, any superannuation paid late is not deductible.

If not, you need to submit additional forms and pay admin levy to the ATO as well as interest on the payments. The interest is meant to make up for the lost earnings of your staff superannuation, that they would have otherwise earned.

In March the government introduced a Superannuation Guarantee Amnesty. The amnesty allows employers to disclose and pay previously unpaid Super Guarantee Charge, including nominal interest, that they owe to their employees for past quarters (1 July 1992 to 31 March 2018).

The benefits:

• Tax deductions for payments of the Superannuation Guarantee Charge
• No administrative penalty of $20 per employee
• No Part 7 penalties (which could otherwise be 200% of the SG Charge owing).

https://www.ato.gov.au/business/super-for-employers/superannuation-guarantee-amnesty/

Important: Employers participating in the amnesty need to apply online by 7 September 2020.

The ATO promised to work with you to establish a payment plan that is flexible to help you to continue making payments. These arrangements include:

• flexible payment terms and amounts which we will adjust if your circumstances change
• the ability to extend the payment plan to beyond 7 September 2020, the end of the amnesty period. However, only payments made by 7 September 2020 will be deductible.

Paying superannuation is a key part of being an employer. It is much easier for the ATO to detect non-payment of super, so non-complying employers should wisely consider their options, and apply to the ATO to take advantage of the amnesty.

Please ask us if you have a question.

Make sure to connect with us on social media.