Superannuation for musicians

Hi all,

 

I run a band with 17 musicians and - like a lot of people in the industry - am only just getting my head around our obligation to pay super guarantee, even though this has actually been a requirement since 1992. The band only does 1 or 2 shows a year but the legislation is quite clear that we still need to make super payments.

 

In order to try and comply with legislation, I looked though the options within MYOB Business. I was already using MYOB Business to manage customer invoices for my small music teaching business, so I thought I might be able to use it for managing the band as well.

 

I saw that superannuation accounts could be set up for employees and that under 'Super payments', there was an option 'Create super payment'. So I thought: "Great! I can set everyone up as employees and pay their super this way without having to subscribe to any other accounting or payment services". Trying to keep costs down is important when you're only playing very occasionally for a few hundred dollars each time.

 

But now that I am coming to the time when I need to actually make the payments, I find that a super payment cannot be created without a pay run. This makes the 'Create super payment' button misleading. A minor point, I know, but when you are starved for time, decisions are made based on the apparent meaning of such buttons. I'm a little peeved at the misleading nature of the 'Create super payment' button.

 

So I tried to create a pay run for my temporary, casual employees, but it is obvious from the process that any pay run has to be reported to the ATO. This is inappropriate because they are actually not employees for any purpose other than superannuation guarantee.

 

Is there any way that I can make a super payment without having to go through a pay run or submit the pay information to the ATO? It's not that there is legislation that I am trying to get around - it's that the legislation governing super guarantee is very poorly thought out. I am a member of the ALMBC (Australian Live Music Business Council) and they are lobbying the ATO to make changes to the legislation, but for the moment I am trying my best to comply but can't find a way to do so.

 

Thanks,

Ben.