Talking Cents

Business accountant on top of the new benefits

As small business accountants in Sydney we were subject to some new information. The Federal Government has recently released a number of changes that will affect superannuation for both employers and employees, with the changes to take effect from 1 July 2013. Some are aimed at simplifying reporting requirements for small businesses, but some also generate extra headaches and confusion for small business owners, just in case you had nothing else to worry about in the day-to-day running of your small business. The four main changes can be summarised as follows:

·The minimum superannuation guarantee rate for employers to pay into their employees super funds rises to 9.25% from 1 July 2013. Small business owners will do well to remember to factor this into any cash flow projections for their businesses. Don't forget that this rate will rise each year until reaching 12% by 2019. Make sure your accounting systems keep up to date with the changes in these rates.

·Up until now employees over 70 years of age were not entitled to be receiving superannuation guarantee payments from their employers. From 1 July 2013 this changes, with all employees, no matter their age, becoming entitled to receive superannuation guarantee on their earnings.

·A new data processing system is being introduced, from 1 July 2014 for businesses with more than 20 employees and from 1 July 2015 for small businesses with less than 20 employees. What this basically entails is that all super contributions will need to be submitted and reported in one standard format. The details of how that format will work are yet to be released, I have no doubt that whilst this will allow for fewer processing delays for your employees super, it will also permit greater data matching powers at the ATO to catch out employers who are not paying all of their employees super entitlements.

·Along with these changes will come a raft of changes to the way self managed super funds are administered, audited and regulated by the ATO. The explosion in the number of self-managed funds in recent years is a clearly a concern to the ATO and the crackdown on self-managed funds was only a matter of time.

For more information on how these changed may affect you and your small business get in touch with our office at mas accountants – offering business accounting in Sydney. Located in Surry Hills and servicing small businesses Australia wide for over 50 years.