Superannuation Guarantee The superannuation guarantee act was introduced on the 1st of July 1992 outlining the responsibilities of employers in regards to providing the necessary superannuation support for their employees. Definition of Employer and Employee An employer is basically anyone who has employed someone under a spoken or written employment contract, has control over the payment of their wages/salary as well as having the power to terminate their employment and hire new employees. An employee is anyone who works on a full-time, part-time or casual basis for an employer and may also include those with an Australian business number working on a contract basis. Employees who may be exempt from superannuation contributions are those who: are paid less than $450 a month are 70 years old or older work less than 30 hours a week and are younger than 18 years of age or are performing work for a non-business employer Contributions and Fund Compliance The superannuation guarantee effectively states that employers must make a contribution of 9% of their employees' earnings base to a superannuation fund or a retirement savings account (RSA) which complies to government standards. To determine if a fund is complying to government standards, you can: contact the trustee of the fund of retirement savings account contact the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) at 1300 131 060 search the Register of Complying Super Funds (ROCS) call the Australian Tax Office's information line at 13 10 20 during business hours Contributions made to employees are tax deductible based on specific rules. For tax audit purposes, records should be kept on the calculation methodology used to determine the amounts contributed as well as which funds contributions were made to for at least the last five years. Superannuation Guarantee Charge Employers may incur the non-tax deductible superannuation guarantee charge should they fail to make the required superannuation guarantee contribution payments or lodge the superannuation guarantee statement by the cut off dates for each quarter. The cut off date for contributions is the 28th of the first month of the following quarter. If you are liable for the superannuation guarantee charge due to having made insufficient contributions to your employees, the charge must be paid along with a lodged statement by the 14th of the second month of the following quarter.