Salary sacrifice (or salary sacrificing or salary sacrifice arrangement) refers to including before-tax super contributions as part of a salary package, which then reduces a person’s taxable salary and the amount of income tax payable.
The following articles refer to Salary sacrifice and superannuation.
This article is a must-read if you make contributions to a super fund, in addition to your employer’s compulsory Superannuation Guarantee contributions.
Hundreds of thousands of Australians who are making a serious effort to save for retirement are expected to receive a financial shock after the financial year ends in [...]
Q: Before commencement of salary sacrifice, my financial adviser told me to ask my boss if he would agree to pay the 9% on the full salary because, legally the employer only needs to contribute the 9% on the income I receive after the salary sacrifice. In short, my gross salary [...]
Superannuation contributions can be divided into two types — concessional (before-tax) and non-concessional (after-tax). Each type of super contribution is subject to a contributions cap (see table below). A contributions cap sets a limit on the amount of contributions you can make in any one year. If you exceed the cap, your excess contributions are [...]
The Federal Government is giving away money to anyone who makes a non-concessional (after-tax) contribution to their super fund, and who earns less than $62,000 a year.
Changes to the co-contribution rules, effective from July 2009, mean that anyone considering taking advantage of the co-contribution scheme for the 2009/2010 year needs to dot their ‘i’s and [...]
Q: Hi, I’m a shift worker and have a question about whether my ‘Super fund salary’ figure which my employer gives to my super fund should include both my base and shift loading salary. At the moment it only includes my base even though my employer does pay super for [...]
Q: I checked my statement and I put an extra $10 per week into my super and each time an amount is put in, it has been taxed. Is this right? I thought that my contributions were tax-free?
Q: Apart from a Public Sector PSS Super account, I have a superannuation account with AGEST to which contributions were made solely through salary sacrifice arrangements. I am about to retire from the Public Sector (age 60) and I am able to draw down a lump sum from AGEST which [...]
Q: I’m a member of the Military Superannuation & Benefits Scheme (MSBS). Is there some reduction in the concessional cap because MSBS is a defined benefit scheme?
Q: I’m 53, put $24,700 of pre-tax contributions into my super account ($950/ftn) with my employer also putting in about $7,000 a year. So, the budget rules (halving the concessional contributions cap) mean I can still salary sacrifice this $950/ftn amount until July 2012, attracting only 15% tax, then every [...]
Q: I have a self-managed super fund (SMSF) and I also have two investment properties in my personal name. When I sell the properties, I will be required to pay capital gains tax. Can this capital gains tax be offset by a contribution to the SMSF which would be tax-deductible? Would there be a 15% [...]
Q: I was wondering what you know about salary sacrifice super being included in FTB family income calculations from 1 July 2009 onwards? This was indicated as a new measure in the 2008 budget but I’m having trouble locating confirmation of this for our 09/10 planning.
Trish’s response: Yes, from 1 July [...]
Salary sacrificing is a popular strategy for employees on middle-to-high incomes who want to increase their superannuation balances while reducing the amount of income tax payable on their salary or wages. Some employees have to watch out that they don’t lose Superannuation Guarantee entitlements in the process.
Under a salary sacrifice [...]
Hi - I'm Trish Power and I am the author of Superannuation For Dummies and many other books on super and investing.And guess what! This site, SuperGuide, is the only INDEPENDENT website for consumers on superannuation in Australia. Read more