Fair Work and the ATO have recently announced changes which may impact your HR and payroll. Here’s a short summary of recent changes and suggest ways your business can get up to speed with these changes.

Changes to Public Holiday substitution rules

Terms allowing an employer to individually substitute a public holiday or substitute a public holiday with agreement from most of their staff will be removed from awards that contain them. Instead, from 4 October 2019, employers and individual employees can now agree to substitute another day or part-day for a public holiday.

More information: https://www.fwc.gov.au/awards-agreements/awards/modern-award-reviews/4-yearly-review/plain-language-re-drafting/other-0

Salary sacrifice contributions cannot be used to reduce super

The Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Tax Integrity and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2019 has been passed by both houses of parliament (awaiting royal assent). This bill ensures salary sacrificed super contributions cannot be used to reduce an employer’s minimum superannuation guarantee contributions.

The amendments made by this new law will apply to working out an employer’s superannuation guarantee shortfall for quarters beginning on or after 1 January 2020.

More information: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6369

SG Opt-out measure

The Treasury Laws Amendment (2018 Superannuation Measures No. 1) Bill 2019 has recently passed through Parliament and received Royal Assent. One of the main important changes that will impact payroll is the SG opt-out measure. From 1 January 2020, eligible individuals with multiple employers can apply to opt out of receiving super guarantee (SG) from some of their employers. This will help high earning employees to avoid unintentionally going over the concessional contributions cap.

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