Welcome to the April 2007 edition of Cbus News, a monthly newsletter designed to update employers on a range of superannuation issues.

Employers can register to receive Cbus News by subscribing directly through the Cbus website. If you would like a colleague to receive this newsletter please forward it to them and they can subscribe by clicking here.

If you have any feedback about the content of the newsletter please email Gordon Noble at gnoble@cbusmail.com.au.

Cbus has produced new Product Disclosure Statements for Industry Super, which are effective from 1 April 2007.

If you have old stocks of Industry Super Member or Employer Handbooks please throw these out.

To order new stocks of Member Handbook for Industry Super contact 1300 361 784.

To download the new Industry Super Member Product Disclosure Statement click here.

In order to make it easier for members and potential members to understand the range of investment options that are available to them, effective from 1 April 2007, the names of Cbus’ investment choices have changed. The new names are as follows:

Super Saver - now 'Capital Guaranteed'

Super Saver - now 'Conservative'

Cbus Super - now 'Core Strategy'

Super Plus - now 'High Growth'

Cbus has also introduced a new investment option called Moderate Growth. This fits between the fund’s Conservative Strategy and Core Strategy and is Cbus’ balanced investment option aiming to provide investors with balanced growth and risk.

For more information on Cbus' investment options click here.

Cbus’ website has been revamped to make it easier for members and employers to navigate to the sections that interest them most.

Information on the website is divided into two columns with product information on the left hand-side and specific information about the fund, its investments and superannuation in general on the right-hand side.

To check out the new website go to www.cbussuper.com.au  

One of the major changes arising from the introduction of the Federal Government’s Simpler Super reforms is the requirement that from 1 July 2007 superannuation fund members must supply their Tax File Number to their super fund in order for contributions to the fund to be concessionally taxed.

Under the Government’s new rules if a member does not supply their Tax File Number (TFN) to a super fund then the contributions will be taxed at the top marginal tax rate plus Medicare levy.

Where a member has had an account open before 1 July 2007 then a super-fund will only be required to tax contributions at the highest marginal tax rates if over $1,000 in contributions are made in a year.

Superannuation fund members will have until 30 June each year to quote their tax file number. That means that super fund members have until 30 June 2008 to supply their tax file number to their super fund in order to ensure they are not taxed at the highest marginal rates for employer contributions made between 1 July 2007 and 30 June 2008. Super-fund members will be able to have tax refunded if a tax file number is subsequently provided to a super-fund within a four-year period.

Important News For Employers

From 1 July 2007 where an employee quotes a TFN for employment purposes, it will automatically taken to be quoted for superannuation purposes. This means that from 1 July 2007 employers will be able to pass TFN’s onto a superfund where the TFN has been supplied to the employer as part of an employment contract.

For more information go to the Federal Government’s Simpler Super website www.simplersuper.treasury.gov.au or download a fact sheet by clicking here.

ASIC has introduced a new superannuation calculator that incorporates the new rules on super contributions which take effect from 1 July 2007. The calculator enables super members to work out the long term effects of:

· the most common fees charged by various funds
· receiving government co-contributions if eligible
· breaking or reducing contributions as a result of time out of the workforce
· switching investment strategies or changing funds.

For more information www.fido.gov.au  or click here.