How much will employers pay for the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) levy?

The Government is introducing the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) Levy, effective from March 2018. This will impact employers planning to sponsor overseas employees on short-term and permanent visas.

The current training requirement

The current requirement required employers sponsoring temporary overseas workers to show evidence of either spend 1% of their annual payroll on training Australian workers or donate 2% of the annual payroll to an approved training fund.

How much will employers pay to the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF)?

From March 2018, employers nominating a worker for a Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa or an ENS (Subclass 186) or RSMS (Subclass 187) visa will be required to pay a contribution to the Skilling Australians Fund. The contribution will be:

  • payable in full at the time the worker is nominated.
  • TSS visa for small businesses*: $1,200 annually per temporary worker nominated.
  • TSS visa for medium and large businesses*: $1,800 annually per temporary worker nominated.
  • Permanent visas, on a 186 or 187 visa: one-off payment of $3,000 for small businesses and one -off payment of $5,000 for other businesses.

* Small businesses (annual turnover of less than $10 million)
* Medium and large businesses (annual turnover of more than $10 million)

Take advantage of the current requirement

Only 6 weeks left to take advantage of the 457 visa programmed before it is abolished and replaced with the new TSS.

We encourage employers who intend to nominate their employees for a temporary or permanent visa to act now as applications should be lodged before the March 2018 changes come into effect to minimized the monetary impact.

Perdaman Global Services (Perdaman) can assist with ensuring your employer sponsored application is lodged prior to the critical dates. We can also ensure that it is lodged as a “decision ready” application, so it can be processed as quickly as possible by the government.

If you would like advice on sponsoring staff, please call our office 08 9346 8888 or send us an email at advice@perdaman-gs.com.au