Employee super contributions for the self-employed and micro businesses

This means if you are employed by your business and draw a regular wage using a traditional PAYG structure, you must make quarterly SG contributions on your own behalf.

2. Self-employed or in a partnership

If you operate a business as a sole trader or as a partnership, you generally are not required to make SG payments into a super account on your own behalf.

The responsibility for saving for your own retirement is up to you. So the decision about whether to make super contributions is yours to make, rather than being a legal requirement.

But just because the law doesn’t require you to make payments towards your super, for most people it’s a sensible idea to make regular contributions from your business income to help save for your retirement.

Who is an employer?

It’s important to note that you may be an employer for SG purposes without realising it – even if you are self-employed or using a partnership structure.

According to super law, you can be an employer for SG purposes if you employ someone under a verbal or written contract on a full-time, part-time or casual basis.

Even if you are not using a company structure, according to the ATO you may be employing someone if you:

• Have some control over their work.
• Pay them for their labour, even if they have an Australian Business Number (ABN).
• Are responsible for paying their salary or wages.
• Have the power to hire or dismiss them.
• Are a non-resident employer with employees working in Australia.
• Pay them a director’s fee in return for their service.
• Are a family company or trust paying salary or wages to family members (including yourself) working in your business.

Contractors or self-employed service providers can be considered an employee for super purposes even if they only work for you on a single project. So, ensure you carefully check the arrangements you have with people undertaking work for you.

Super contributions for the self-employed

If you’re self-employed and decide you want to make super contributions on your own behalf, there are two main ways of doing it. If you pay yourself:

• A wage as an employee of your company, ensure you contribute at least 9.5% of your before-tax income to your super fund.
• Out of your business revenue, most super funds permit you to send either an annual lump sum or small regular contributions throughout the year as your cash flow permits.

Self-employed businesspeople are subject to the same contribution caps (see below) as regular employees, so it’s important to ensure you don’t exceed your annual contributions cap.

Insurance protection and your super

An often-overlooked benefit of deciding to make super contributions if you are self-employed is the insurance cover available through your super fund.

Generally, super funds can access better prices on death, Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) and income protection cover than an individual can, so going through your super fund can be an easy way to access competitively priced protection if you work for yourself.

Most large super funds automatically offer new members set levels of death and TPD insurance cover without them needing to undergo a medical examination. This automatic cover can be great for people aged 60 or over who may not be able to obtain cost-effective cover outside of super due to age or ill health.

Save some tax: Claim a tax deduction for your contributions

If you make super contributions on your own behalf, you may be eligible to claim a tax deduction for the contributions, consequently cutting your tax bill.