Quick summary of WorkCover in South Australia

I have been helping out with quite a few annual reconciliation statements so I might as well write about it since it's on my mind.

What is WorkCoverSA?
WorkCoverSA is the organisation that manages the South Australian Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Scheme. They do a quite a few important things such as help people recover but basically they provide insurance for employees who are injured at work.

Ok, it's insurance for employees. Who pays the insurance premiums?
Employers pay the premium. The premium is calculated as a percentage of the total remuneration paid to your employees.

What is remuneration?
Remuneration is defined as payments made for the benefit of your employees. Besides salary and wages, remuneration includes their superannuation, bonuses, allowances and many others. The full list can be found here but it is updated every year so make sure to check before preparing your annual reconciliation statements.

What is the annual reconciliation statement?
Most employers can pay their premium in ten monthly instalments rather than an annual lump sum which helps with cash flow. However since your payroll will most likely change during the year, at the end of the financial year you need to recalculate your WorkCover premium and pay (or get refunded) the difference between your instalments already paid.

What are the key dates?

• Your annual reconciliation statement is due by 31 July. (If you pay your premium as an annual lump sum then it is due now as well.)
• Then any shortfall payments or refunds resulting from the reconciliation should be settled by the end of August.
• If you pay your premium in instalments, then the ten monthly payments start on 7 September and end on 7 June each financial year.

For more information on how your premium is calculated, please visit the WorkCover SA website here which tries to explain how they came up with your rate. If you have any questions about WorkCover or workplace injuries then feel free to contact me for more information. Even they believe we are Better together!

Superannuation for your employees

Just a quick reminder for those who hire employees in your business, that the superannuation guarantee has increased from 9% to 9.25% from 1 July 2013. Your payroll software should make this adjustment automatically but it pays to check your first pay run for the year just in case.

Now that I got my main message across, here is a reminder of everything else related to your employee's superannuation.

• This 9.25% amount is called the superannuation guarantee charge (SGC). It is mandatory for all your employees, no matter if they are permanent or casual, who earn more than $450 a month but be aware that there are age and industry exceptions.

• SGC is also calculated on payments made to contractors if their invoice was primarily for their labour so they removed this benefit from converting your workforce to contractors.

• SGC is paid to a complying superannuation fund of your employee's choice which is usually indicated by their super choice form.

• At the minimum, SGC must be paid to all your employee's super funds before the 28th day after each quarter. That is 28 July, 28 October, 28 January, 28 April. However you can pay more frequently if it suits you.

The government, through various departments, focuses on employee's super quite a bit so it is an area that we need to get right. Please contact me if you have any questions about this or if you are looking at hiring your first employee soon.

Now here is something fun for everyone to do: Please visit the Tax Office's SuperSeeker website and see if any of the $18 billion in unclaimed money is yours. Yes, I said billions.