In this edition

Contact details

Phone
08 8177 5799

Fax
08 8223 3593

What's new?

Carbon Emission Assessments

Nelson Wheeler Nexia has recently teamed up with Carbon Planet Pty Ltd, a leading Australian carbon management & consultancy company, to assist clients with their carbon emission assessment requirements. Reporting GHG emissions became law in July 2008 for all large corporations and tracking of such carbon emissions is now essential.

To learn more, please contact us.

Change to calculation of super guarantee from 1 July

Back to front page

What is OTE?

OTE is generally what an employee earns for ordinary hours of work including over-award payments, shift loading or commissions. It excludes such things as overtime (and there are some other exceptions).

Most employees have OTE as their earnings base, however some have other earnings bases that may be contained in:

an industrial award;
an existing employment agreement;
a fund's trust deed; or
a Commonwealth, State or Territory law.

If an employer is currently paying super on a different earnings base, and this results in an amount being paid which is less than the minimum 9% of OTE from 1 July 2008, they may need to increase the super support to meet the minimum and avoid the superannuation guarantee charge (SGC). Accordingly employers should revisit their calculations for superannuation they have recently made for the September 2008 quarter to determine if any shortfall now exists.

Example

Motor vehicle company XYZ has been paying super contributions under an award for its employees which states that commission for salespersons is excluded from ordinary time earnings as defined in the relevant award.

However, from 1 July 2008, Motor vehicle company XYZ must include commission for its salespersons when calculating super guarantee contributions.

For more information, please contact this office.

Back to front page

The contents of this Bulletin are general in nature. We therefore accept no responsibility to persons acting on the information herein without first consulting us.