The question of whether an individual has been engaged as an
employee or as an independent contractor can often have
different answers depending on the context in which the question is
being asked.
The issues of accrual of leave entitlements, workers
compensation obligations, payroll tax, responsibility for PAYG
instalments and superannuation all have slightly different tests in
determining whether or not the relationship is one of
employee/employer or principal/subcontractor.
We often find that businesses are unaware of the fact that many
of their subcontractors are actually entitled to super because they
are deemed by the law to be an employee for the purposes of super.
The test as to whether or not someone is an "employee"
for the purposes of superannuation is actually quite
straightforward.
