Salary sacrificing - not such a sacrifice

A global survey of people's attitudes to retirement savings shows while Australians expect to spend, on average, 23 years in retirement, their money will run out after only just 10 years.  This gap in retirement savings, affectionately called ‘the retirement gap’ is a growing concern and more and more Australians are looking for ways to boost their super savings.

The good news is that there are easy ways to boost your super

Salary sacrificing is the choice you can make to re-direct some of your salary and make increased contributions into super.  This is known as salary sacrifice and is taxed at only 15% (or 30% for high income earners) - that is, for most people, much lower than their marginal tax rate.

Salary sacrificing, particularly for those who have spare cash flow, can be particularly effective as shown in the table below:

	Taken as salary	Salary sacrificed into super
Gross contribution	$1,000	$1,000
Tax rate* (%)	34.5	15
Tax payable	$345	$150
Net benefit	$655	$850

* Includes Medicare levy

For employees with a marginal tax rate of 34.5 per cent (including Medicare levy), they are $195 better off for every $1,000 they choose to salary sacrifice. Depending on their salary this benefit can be even greater, however it’s important to remember that salary sacrificing doesn’t make sense in every situation.

Taxable income + benefits	Marginal tax rate*(%)	Contributions tax rate (%)	Net tax saving on contribution (%)
$0 to $18,200	0	15	Negative
$18,201, to $37,000	21	15	6
$37,001 to $87,000	34.5	15	19.5
$87,001 to $180,000	39	15	24
$180,000 to $300,000	49	15	34
Over $300,000	49	30	19

* Includes Medicare levy

Important: concessional contributions are capped at $30,000 if you are under 50, or $35,000 for those over 50, however this includes the employer SG contribution. Contributions above these limits are taxed at marginal tax rates. From 1 July 2017 this will drop to $25,000 for everyone.

Government co-contribution

For your employees earning less than $51,201 (in the 2016/2017 year) the Government co-contribution is another way to boost super balances.

For after-tax contributions of $1,000 or more into super, the Government will make a co-contribution of up to $500. The $500 maximum applies for employees earning less than $36,021 and reduces by 3.333 cents for every dollar of income over $36,021, before phasing out completely once they earn $51,021.