Salary sacrificing made simple

Salary sacrificing is a popular arrangement with employers, whereby you can opt to receive less take-home pay in return for a range of potential financial benefits.

Also commonly referred to as salary packaging, one choice is to ask your employer to add some of your wages directly into your super. The amount you choose to be added to your super comes out of your salary before you’re paid, reducing your taxable income and providing an immediate tax benefit.

Any salary sacrificing you request your employer make on your behalf is on top of their compulsory super contribution.

Although many people opt to enter into a salary sacrifice arrangement when completing the paperwork for a new job, you can opt-in to this arrangement at any point with your employer.

Investments held in super can receive significant tax advantages. So, depending on your current income, sacrificing some of your salary into superannuation now could be part of an effective long-term wealth and tax strategy.
 

In this article we explore:

• How salary sacrificing works
• Salary sacrificing benefits
• Salary sacrificing disadvantages
• Other considerations
   

How salary sacrificing works

Most, but not all, employers offer employees the opportunity to enter into a salary sacrificing arrangement. To find out if your employer offers this, we recommend checking with your HR or payroll department.

If they do offer it, let them know in either a dollar amount or percentage figure, how much of your pre-tax pay you’d like to put into your super account each pay cycle.
 

Salary sacrificing delivers a number of benefits, including:
 

• Paying less tax:
  When you salary sacrifice into your super, it’s taxed at a rate of 15%¹
  
  
• Reducing your taxable income:
  In addition to paying a lower rate of tax on your salary sacrificed amounts, the more pre-tax salary you choose to put into your super, the lower your taxable income will be.
  
  
• Super Growth:
  Any additional contributions into your superannuation account can help you grow long-term wealth by maximising the amount of compound interest you earn over your career.
   

There are some possible disadvantages with salary sacrificing, including:
 

• Reduced spending power:
  You should make sure you have enough money in your take-home pay to meet your financial commitments to avoid leaving yourself short.
  
  
• Tax-rate minimums:
  If you’re on a low income, your additional contributions to super could be taxed at a higher rate than your salary.
  
  
• Locked-up finances:
  In most cases, you will not be able to access super funds prior to retirement.

The beauty of salary sacrificing into super is that your contributions are invested automatically and, by paying less tax, you know that your money is working harder for your future.
 

Other considerations

How much you choose to salary sacrifice into super will depend on your personal situation and how much you can afford. You should also consider other concessional contributions you already make into your super (such as how much your employer contributes) as there is currently a $30,000 cap per financial year on the amount of concessional contributions you can make into your super.

If you go over this cap, you will be taxed at your marginal rate.  For further information on the contribution caps, please see our contributions page.

It’s also important to remember that you’re not locked into a salary sacrificing arrangement and can stop, decrease or increase your contributions at any time.

Before salary sacrificing into super, you may want to seek financial advice.