Happy New Financial Year!
Happy New Year and welcome to another new financial year!
The one thing that can be guaranteed with the start of a new financial year is that there are rate changes to some awards as well as an increase in the Superannuation Guarantee percentage from 10.5% to 11%.
All these changes come into effect from the first FULL payrun for your employees so if your payrun is next week for last week’s hours worked then the payrate is increased after this payrun has been processed. This payroll is still processed at the OLD rate.
Let us look at what awards have changed in this new financial year.
National Minimum Wages
The Fair Work Ombudsman is reminding employers that the national minimum wage will increase from 1st July 2023 to $23.23 per hour (up from $21.38) or $882.80 per week (up $70.20 from $812.60) based on a 38-hour week for a full-time employee.
This increase applies from an employee’s first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2023.
Casual employees entitled to the national minimum wage must receive a minimum $29.04 per hour, which includes their 25 per cent casual loading.
The Commission also announced that employees covered by awards will have their minimum wage rates increased by 5.75 per cent from the first full pay period starting on or after 1st July 2023.
This is a really good time to check to ensure that all your employees are being paid the correct rate for their classification,
Changes to Child Care Subsidy
From 10 July, there are changes to the way Services Australia work out CCS entitlement. This means your family’s CCS may increase.
If you already get CCS, you don’t need to do anything to get the increased rate. We’ll apply these changes for you from 10 July 2023.
You can use the Child Care Subsidy calculator on the Starting Blocks website to see what your CCS may be and how much you may pay for child care.
From July, the family income limit to get CCS is increasing from $356,756 to $530,000. Subsidy rates are also going up.
Families earning up to $80,000 will get an increased maximum subsidy, from 85% to 90%. Families earning over $80,000 will get a subsidy that tapers down from 90%, depending on their income. The subsidy will go down 1% for each $5,000 earned.
Families with more than one child aged 5 or under in care can also get a higher subsidy rate for their second and younger children, if they earn below $362,408
For more information check this website: https://www.education.gov.au/newsroom/articles/changes-child-care-subsidy
Paid family and domestic violence leave for some employees
From 1 February 2023, employees of non-small business employers (employers with 15 or more employees on 1 February 2023) can access 10 days of paid family domestic violence leave. This includes part-time and casual employees.
The information on this page has now been updated to reflect this new leave entitlement.
UpComing Changes to Family and Domestic Violence Leave
Employees employed by small business employers (employers with less than 15 employees on 1 February 2023) can access paid leave from 1 August 2023. Until then, they can continue to take unpaid family and domestic violence leave. Learn more at Unpaid family and domestic violence leave.
All employees are entitled to family and domestic violence leave each year. This includes full-time, part-time and casual employees.
The entitlement to paid or unpaid family and domestic violence leave comes from the National Employment Standards (NES). It’s a minimum leave entitlement, like annual leave or sick and carer’s leave.
Employees can take paid leave to deal with family and domestic violence from different dates depending on the size of their employer. The leave is available from:
- 1 February 2023, for employees of non-small business employers
- 1 August 2023, for employees of small business employers.
Employees of small business employers can continue to take unpaid family and domestic violence leave until 1 August 2023.
For more information https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/family-and-domestic-violence-leave.
STP2 & Superannuation increases to 11%
Superannuation is now 11% effective first full payrun from 1st July 2023. Most software systems that are STP2 compliant will have that automatic update feature in the backend so you shouldn’t have to worry about a thing. If you do notice that the rate hasn’t increased check the settings of your software and ensure a box isn’t ticked that shouldn’t be ticked.
End of Year Payroll Processing
If the payroll has been processing through STP2 over the past couple of months, chances are your software program for finalising the end of year is as simple as following the steps via the STP2 End of Year Finalisation which once correctly completed will automatically upload the payment summaries directly into the employees MyGov account to make for simple tax returns at their end.
More information
At Bas and Balances we pride ourselves in providing the most current, up to date resources and information for our clients and as Registered BAS Agents, we know the intricacies of payroll and ensuring the employer and employer are on the correct rate.
We offer of full outsourced payroll service and having recently completed her Diploma of Payroll Services, Denise and the team can look after even the ugliest part of payroll, staff terminations for you.
Our office can help with this part of your payroll if it is outside of your league or you just want someone to check it over before it is submitted to the ATO and employee portals.
The start of a new financial year is the ideal time to review your internal systems, automation, impact on the environment and we can help you work out some streamlined processes using the power of the cloud solutions at your fingertips.
We are a small business run by passionate Directors, Lisa Wilde who is based in the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria and Denise Twigger who is based in Kalamunda in the beautiful Perth Hills of Western Australia who collaborated 4 years ago with a mutual love and passion for small businesses, especially those in the trades and services, building and construction industries.
Our Business turns 23 this July so when it comes to understanding our clients needs, requirements and compliance we definitely are experts in the industry.
BAS and Balances for all your Bookkeeping, Payroll, Training and Compliance requirements. See how we can help you today by calling our office on 1300727375 (1300 Paperless) or emailing: admin@basandbalances.com.au
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram to stay up to date on changes in the fair work world and what workshops we have coming up.
Ready or not the team at BAS and Balances are certainly ready.
Lisa & Denise
