Boost your super with salary sacrifice

IT’S HARD TO KNOW HOW MUCH super you’ll need when you retire and how long you might need it for – but our experience tells us that if you want to keep enjoying your current lifestyle when you retire, you’ll need to save enough to provide you with at least 70% of your current annual income.

ARE EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS ENOUGH?

While you are working, your employer contributes a minimum of 11% of your salary into your super account. This is known as the Superannuation Guarantee (SG).

These contributions help your super grow, but they may not be enough for you to afford a comfortable retirement.

Making Extra Contributions Is One Of The Best Ways To Grow Your Super

If you are a long way from retirement, starting to regularly add extra money to your super now means you can make a bigger impact on your retirement savings. If you are close to retiring, you should aim to make the most contributions possible to grow your balance.

Remember, the earlier you take control of your super, the more time you have to explore your options and allow your savings to grow.

Salary Sacrifice And Super

Salary sacrifice is generally a tax-effective way to make extra contributions to your super account by ‘sacrificing’ part of your before-tax salary to your super account, instead of having it paid to you.

You can salary sacrifice to your GESB Super or West State Super account if you’re currently employed in the WA public sector. If you’re a Gold State Super member and would like to make salary sacrifice contributions over your maximum Average Contribution Rate, they need to be made to a GESB Super or West State Super account.

If you don’t have one of these accounts, we can automatically open one for you.

Please note that there are limits to how much you can add to your super each year. The general concessional (before tax) cap for GESB Super is currently $27,500 per financial year.1 West State Super members however have much higher contribution limits.

Benefits Of Salary Sacrificing

Salary sacrifice contributions allow you to make the most of the special tax treatment that applies to super. If you compare salary sacrifice contributions to making contributions from your aftertax income (such as to a savings account or a managed fund), you’ll find salary sacrifice has three main benefits:

• You may pay less income tax as your taxable income is reduced by the amount you salary sacrifice

• You could have more money to invest as your salary is taxed up to 47% (depending on your marginal tax rate), while a salary sacrifice contribution is generally taxed at 15%

• You could pay less tax on what your super investment earns, as the investment earnings on a savings or managed fund may be taxed up to 49%, while earnings on GESB Super are only taxed at 15%

IT’S EASY TO GET STARTED

Head to gesb.wa.gov.au/super-boost and:

• Watch our salary sacrifice video to learn more

• Work out how to make the most of your salary sacrifice contributions by using our contributions calculator

• Register for a ‘Salary sacrificing in super’ webinar

When you are ready, you can start salary sacrificing by getting in touch with your Personnel Services team.

13 43 72.