Salary Sacrifice
Salary sacrifice or salary packaging is an effective way to reduce the amount of tax you pay by paying for some items or services directly from your pre-tax salary.
It is an arrangement between you and your employer, and the types of things you can salary package will depend on your employer but some common items include; computers, cars and superannuation. If you are employed by a charity or hospital there are additional benefits you can salary package such as mortgage repayments or rent.
By reducing your taxable income through salary sacrifice, you will pay less tax and may even end up with more take home pay. Talk to us about how to maximise this fantastic benefit.
Superannuation
Superannuation is simply described as forced savings for retirement. It is compulsory in Australia and is a long term investment with concessional tax treatments that ensures you have money available to fund your retirement.
Given superannuation is a long-term investment, compulsory for employers and has seen some bad days in the press, it may seem like something that is not worth worrying about or something you can put off until the future.
But for most people, superannuation will eventually become one of your largest assets so it’s worth getting on top of your super and understanding how to maximise it now.
While successive governments have and will continue to change the rules regarding superannuation, it is still currently the best way to reduce the amount of tax you pay while saving for the future.
Superannuation is not the investment itself, it is the structure the investments are held in and they are taxed at a maximum rate of 15%. So with the use of a Self Managed Super Fund you can invest in almost anything through the tax-effective structure of superannuation.
There are various types of superannuation contributions and strategies that we can discuss with you – including specific rates and offsets dependent on your income level – to ensure you are getting the most value out of your super.
