That was a question from one of Tasplan's Participating Employers and a question that we had not covered in our Employer Super Checklist.

Superannuation Guarantee contributions are only payable on Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) and Tax Office ruling SGR 2009/2 states -
Redundancy Payments are not salary or wages for SGAA purposes and thus are not OTE:

The Federal Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, has made his position clear on the proposed rise in the superannuation guarantee from its current level of 9%.

The Government has announced changes that, if agreed to by parliament, will gradually increase the superannuation guarantee rate from 9% to 12% between the 2013-14 and 2019-20 years.

At a Financial Services Council (FSC) breakfast in Sydney earlier today, Mr Abbott confirmed the Coalition would not vote in support of the proposed legislation. However, he also admitted that if the legislation was to pass through Parliament, the Coalition would not repeal it if they get into power.

"We aren't going to support it in the parliament but if it goes through, we will not rescind it.

Employing someone as an employee or contractor is a decision many businesses will make and given the investigations being done by the Fair Work Ombudsman businesses need to ensure they get that decision right. 

The Fair Work Ombudsman has released the findings of his office's audit into sham contracting in the cleaning services, hair and beauty, and call centre industries.

One of Tasplan’s largest employers, Work & Training Ltd, recently held their Annual Awards evening where over 350 young Tasmanians graduated from a range of Traineeships and Apprenticeships.

I was particularly delighted to present the Tasplan sponsored ‘Training Student Award’  to a very excited Kate Paterson.

Kate is incredibly passionate about her work in the aged care industry, and spoke of her first day in the Aged Care Course and how nervous she was... all she could manage in the introductions was “My name is Kate”’.

Her self confidence grew as the course progressed and on the first day of her work placement, she was offered a position with Baptcare Karingal Home in Devonport. She graduated with a Cert III in Aged Care in May 2011 and is loving her new career.

Tasplan has picked up a national award for its innovative social media campaign "Super – Straight Up"

Having a plan for what to do if your business suffers a natural disaster or other emergency (such as a break-in, prolonged power loss or a pandemic just to name a few) makes sense.

Of course most business owners are too busy with the demanding day-to-day tasks of running a business to think about planning for unpredictable events so many never get around to creating that plan.

A large number of the businesses I deal with every day are “small businesses”. The ABS categorises small business as one with less than 20 employees.

Lately I have had questions from employers about making superannuation contributions for employees who are aged over sixty five.

The short answer is that an employer must pay “mandated” contributions until the employee reaches age 70. Mandated contributions are contributions that an employer must make to meet their obligations under any of the following:

It is only a short time ago that I attended the opening of the brand new workshop of CAR REPAIRS TASMANIA and posted an article here about the fantastic new premises.

Now the hard work and commitment of Matthew & Alison Bradburn has been recognised in the Suncorp/AP&P Autobody Repairer of the Year Awards with Car Repairs Tasmania named Regional Winner (New) Victoria [which obviously includes Tasmania].

If you read the cover story from yesterday’s Sunday Tasmanian newspaper, you will be familiar with how much lost super is out there in super land….over $12 billion in total, with over $215 million in lost super accounts for Tasmanians alone. 

A lost super account is one where the fund no longer has a valid address for the member, or the fund had received returned or unclaimed mail. A member is not regarded ‘lost’ if their address had been confirmed in the past two years. 

Finding lost super seems to be one of those issues people find a little daunting, and just keep putting into the ‘too hard’ basket. According to a recent Westpac survey, 15.8% of people questioned knew they had unclaimed or lost super but had not actively tried to find it.