So you would like to send an invoice to the pharmacy you locumed at! But have you spoken to your accountant about implications of getting paid via invoice? Have you had your superannuation withheld, or did you include it in the invoice? What about GST – do you need to register for that and have you included it in your invoice? If not, have you put a zero amount on the invoice for GST?
When certain conditions are met, a person, even if sending an invoice for their work, will be considered an employee of the company for superannuation purposes and must therefore have superannuation paid according to the rules and regulations set.
** If you are a locum pharmacist with with an ABN and sending an invoice to a pharmacy, superannuation should be directly paid to your super fund in accordance with the Superannuation Contribution Guarantee. That is – it should not be paid to you directly on the invoice! If it is, the business may again be liable to pay superannuation on that invoice. Furthermore, you can not simply “factor it in to the hourly rate”.
Furthermore, the pharmacy must also with hold PAYG from the invoice and report that to the ATO as though you are on their pay roll and are considered an employee by the ATO for superannuation and PAYG purposes.
Pharmacy SOS pays locums only on Pharmacy SOS pay roll and does not accept locum invoices unless you can show that you would not be considered an employee of Pharmacy SOS or the pharmacy by locuming through this ATO Tool.
For more information, please see below from the ATO website where you can also check out their decision tool to determine how you should send your invoice:
Contractors paid mainly for their labour are employees for superannuation guarantee purposes. This is the case even if the contractor quotes an Australian Business Number (ABN).
You must make super contributions for these individuals if you pay them:
- under a verbal or written contract that is wholly or principally for their labour – that is, more than half the dollar value of the contract is for their labour
- for their personal labour and skills – which may include physical labour, mental effort or artistic effort – and not to achieve a result
- to perform the contract work personally – that is, they must not delegate.
If you make a contract with someone other than the person who’ll actually provide the labour – for example, with a company, trust or a partnership – you don’t pay that person super.
Should you have any queries please so not hesitate to contact us directly on 1300 505 247 or e-mail us to sos@pharmacysos.com.au.
Alternatively, you may like to speak to an accountant to seek professional advice, please contact our preferred accountants, BNS Tax Consultants Pty Ltd.
(Last Updated on September 1, 2022)