AU Payroll - Super maximum contribution base
Employers are only required to pay superannuation guarantee up to a quarterly threshold (maximum contribution base). At the moment Xero doesn’t cap the super at this level, and will allow super above the cap to be booked. (In fact, to limit the super at the cap requires a work-around adding 2 lines, one with 0% super and another with the fixed amount up to the cap.). Employers can easily overpay their employees’ super. This functionality needs to be built into Xero.

Hi everyone, thank you for your feedback and I do want to apologise for any confusion my update's caused. You're correct in that the responsibility outlined in my response is relevant to the concessional contribution cap. Seeing your responses today, we now appreciate that the idea here is specifically around the maximum contribution base.
I want to assure you this is something our product teams are paying close attention to and though we don't have any immediate plans we can share, we will consider this request as we continue to plan our roadmap - We encourage you to share any further details on your experiences related to managing the maximum contribution base as these will be helpful to the product team as they assess this feature.
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Dane Pollack commented
Ive been going on about this for a while. And unfortunately, as Xero cant calculate this at the moment, i have to manually run calculations on our payruns against the maximum SGC contribution amount.
I would think that the resolution to this wouldnt be to complex as it is a fairly simple calculation, and is something other systems have built in.
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Emma Davies commented
Kelly, this is incorrect. The quarterly contributions base is an employer contributions limit. This has nothing to do with other income an employee has (you may be thinking of the concessional/non-concessional contributions caps, which are affected by other contributions).
This definitely should be included as a payroll function in Xero. The functionality is included as standard in most other payroll packages.
Please see here for basic information on the Maximum Super Contributions Base:
https://www.ato.gov.au/tax-rates-and-codes/key-superannuation-rates-and-thresholds/super-guarantee -
David Geddes commented
Spot on cpomments this morning. Thius is an issue that Xero should be across. I've had a YE nightmare resolving this eact issue - employer overpayment/provisioning of super for an employee earnings well over $250k. This needs to be fixed, pronto. Thx
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Robyn Leydon commented
Hi Kelly, I want to reiterate George's comments. This request is about complying with the employer's obligations regarding super for high salaried employees (those earning more than $250,000pa).
Your reply makes me think Xero may not fully understand the SGC system.
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Nicki Passanisi commented
Kelly, you are talking about the concessional cap for employees, we are talking about the quarterly cap for contributions made by the employer.
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Antonia Connolly commented
Hi, the update from xero seems to miss the point. This is not about payments putting an employee over the cap, this is the "Superannuation Guarantee" only guararanteeing super up to the maximum contribution base - ie the employer does not need to pay super over this amount. It is not an employee issue - the lack of this cap can mean the employer pays more than it is legally required.
Please can somebody at Xero review what we are talking about. this is a part of super legislation. -
George Germanos commented
Hi Kelly, not necessarily - there is a maximum that the employer has to pay, hence employer responsibility. It has nothing to do with an employees multiple incomes. https://www.ato.gov.au/tax-rates-and-codes/key-superannuation-rates-and-thresholds/super-guarantee#ato-Maximumsupercontributionbase
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Jessica Robinson commented
Please prioritise this as a new update! It will save us so much time and confusion if it's automatic.
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Peter Lenaghan commented
Yes this is easy to forget about the limits. Would be great if Xero auto calculated this per quarter
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Steven Dobbyn commented
Please fix, this is a massive pain!!
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Matthew James commented
This is a basic requirement & don't see how Xero is compliant with the ATO . Very disappointing to find out after year-end we overpaid Super - guess Xero won't refund the overpayment!
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Freya Pieroz commented
Currently going through and editing all the payroll templates and repeating bills for clients. There would be a lot fewer things to update for the new year during the EOFY rush if the maximum contributions base had been implemented.
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Joanne Kennedy commented
Please add this important feature .
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Nadia Allan commented
Please add this feature. We're at risk of being non-compliant without manual intervention, which seems pretty backwards for a paid service.
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Natalie Rallis commented
Can Xero please set up a flag when the super contribution cap has been reached for an employee? At the moment, the way to check is to run a YTD report, but it would be awesome if a flag or warning was created.
Thanks!
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David Borensztajn commented
How has this not been added yet. How can Xero justify the ever-increasing cost to it loyal customers when they allow compliance matters like this to fall by the wayside?!?!
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Vusi Nxele commented
This is an important feature that needs to be added.
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Marie Clothier commented
Xero, this is critically important. We are moving from a payroll system (that had this functionality) to Xero. To find out Xero doesn't stop someone from going over the super cap is not great. These caps are in place by the ATO, so it should be part of any basic payroll system. Thanks
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Juanita Herbert commented
Xero, this is important. Genuine question - why hasn't it been fixed yet?
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Alice Mattiske commented
Please add this function ASAP!! Do not know how people with multiple employees would even consider Xero if they had to change their super contribution every fortnight!!! We only have one employee and I get frustrated every fortnight.