Business owners: Urgent Read - Tip to avoid possible super penalties. Pay well before the Public Holiday Day!

A tip for all small business owners that super obligations for applicable employees wages for October 2013 - December 2013 is due by the 28th of January 2014. If you don't make your superannuation contributions by the cut off dates, you'll face penalties. Penalties can include the superannuation not being tax deductible, penalty interest and an administration fee.

With the 28th January 2014 fast approaching and the Australia Day public Holiday on the 27th January this means that super should be paid by Thursday (tomorrow) to make sure it has enough days to clear.

Its also a good starting point for small business owners to reflect on what systems you have in place to keep up with the never ending business deadlines for 2014. Are you still behind with previous years tax work? A proactive bookkeeper or accountant will be able to assist you with this. If your bookkeeper or accountant is still in holiday mode and has not given you adequate warning about the super deadline public holiday issues, I suggest you look for another bookkeeper or accountant.

Also - why did I refer to applicable employee wages in the first paragraph. I recently met with an employer who was paying the superannuation guarantee of 9.25% on all of the employee's wages, including their overtime. I also met with another business owner who was paying super on staff under the age of 18 and staff that earnt less than $450 a month. Both business owners were actually overpaying super by thousands each year. Superannuation is not payable on overtime, to employees under 18 and employees earning less than $450. The business owners were trying to save themselves money by doing the bookkeeping themselves or hiring someone who did not know what they were doing, but it ended up costing the business owners more than utilising the services of an affordable and experienced bookkeeper.

Author:
Miriam Clappis
Director of Flinders Accounting and Bookkeeping Plus
B.Laws (Honours) B.Commerce (Corp.Fin/Acc), B.Economics
CPA, DFS(FinPlan.) Cert IV Fin.Services

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email: miriam@flindersaccounting.com
phone: 08 7001 1627