Salary sacrifice concerns flagged with housing saver scheme
It remains uncertain how the First Home Super Saver Scheme will operate in relation to employers who use salary sacrificed amounts to fulfil their own SG obligations, says a technical expert.
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand superannuation leader Tony Negline says many details about the two changes relating to real estate and superannuation remain unknown.
Mr Negline said under the proposed scheme, individuals are able to make personal contributions that they personally claim, after tax contributions, and can also salary sacrifice.
One aspect that remains unclear, however, is what will happen in regards to employers who utilise their employee’s salary sacrificed amounts to satisfy their 9.5 per cent superannuation guarantee obligations.
“There is a small cohort of employers who, if you make a salary sacrifice contribution, they say ‘Well, that’s an employer contribution, therefore I don’t have to pay the super guarantee’. We don’t know quite how that’s going to work,” Mr Negline said.
CAANZ previously noted that employers are allowed to do this due to an anomaly in the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992.
Mr Negline said there were a whole range of other uncertainties that would also need to be determined by the government including situations where one partner in a couple has purchased a home and the other hasn’t, and the impact of different laws in different states.
“All those questions are going to have to be sorted out in time, hopefully in the not too distant future, because this thing gets up and running in July,” he said.
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
