More Help for Business Thanks to Online Tools

The Tax Office has released three new web-based tools to help employers understand and meet their tax and super obligations.

Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said that a priority for the Tax Office was to help business people meet their obligations easily and cheaply.

“Different tax and super obligations apply to workers depending on whether they are an employee or an independent contractor.

“The free interactive tools we have developed for business provide an easy way for employers to determine and calculate their obligations,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.
The tools are:

• an employee/contractor decision tool, to help people work out whether their new or existing workers are contractors or employees for tax and super purposes
  
• a superannuation guarantee eligibility decision tool, to help employers work out if they have an obligation to make super contributions for their workers, and
  
• a superannuation guarantee contributions calculator that calculates how much super employers should be contributing for their eligible workers.
  

Each tool takes less than 15 minutes and guides people through a series of questions. Employers will receive an online report at the end of each session.

People who are not sure whether their workers are employees or contractors should use the employee/contractor decision tool first, before using the super tools.

The tools are available on the Tax Office website at no cost, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To use web-based decision tools and calculators, visit http://www.ato.gov.au/ and select: For Business – Employer essentials – Tax rates, calculators and tools – Other calculators and tools.

$billions in lost superannuation

With $9.7 billion of lost superannuation lying in Australian funds, you'd think people would be lining up to claim their share but the amount of money in lost super accounts is steadily growing.

I posted recently in Dollars and Sense for Individuals that this affects 4.3 million Aussies. Fortunately, there is an easy way to track it down.

Accounts become lost when the superannuation fund loses contact with the individual account holder. This can happen for a variety of reasons and while funds do try to contact lost account holders, they are not always successful.

You don't have to wait for a fund to find you. The Australian Taxation Office has a service they call Superseeker. SuperSeeker is a tool that will look for your lost superannuation in real time and instantly provide you with possible matches.

To begin the Superseeker online search you will need to provide your:

• tax file number
• name, and
• date of birth.

It's your money so go and claim your share of the lost billions!