Superannuation is your savings for your retirement. While the Government will be gradually increasing the super guarantee payments made by your employer on your behalf from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent by 2025, these contributions alone may not be sufficient to support your retirement lifestyle. There are, however, strategies that can help you boost your super savings.

Salary sacrificing not only helps to boost your superannuation savings but reduces the amount of tax you pay as well.

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There have been changes to the Privacy Legislation

Effective from 22nd February 2018 amendments to Federal Privacy Act legislation will see mandatory data breach notification laws introduced to Australia for the first time.

This will be known as the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme (NDB) and will impact all organisations covered by the Australian Privacy Act 1988.

Single Touch Payroll (STP), the direct reporting of salary and wages, PAYG withholding and superannuation contribution information to the ATO, comes into effect from 1 July 2018.

Employers with 20 or more employees at 1 April 2018 must use standard business reporting-enabled software from 1 July 2018. The head count for ‘20 employees’ includes full-time, part-time, casuals (who worked any time during March), employees based overseas, or on paid or unpaid leave. Directors and independent contractors are excluded from the count.

STP is currently voluntary for businesses with less than 20 employees although proposed reforms seek to extend the reporting system to all employers by 1 July 2019, regardless of the number of employees. .