Certificate of coverage: when a posting from India means no super

The payslip arrives every fortnight with the same gap in it. Salary, tax withheld, the net amount, and no superannuation. For most workers in Australia that gap would be a breach: since 1 July 2026, employers have had to pay the super guarantee for each payday, at a general rate of 12 per cent, which on a salary of A$120,000 comes to A$14,400 a year. For an engineer posted from Pune to Sydney by her Indian employer, the same gap can be lawful. What separates the two cases is largely a single document, a certificate of coverage, issued in India at the employer’s request.

Australia and India signed a social security agreement in Canberra on 18 November 2014, and it has operated since 1 January 2016. On the Australian side it reaches two things only, the age pension and the super guarantee. Its stated purpose, for workers, is to make sure that an employer and an employee do not carry a “double liability” under both countries’ laws for the same work. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) lists the practical result among the cases where an employer does not have to pay super: employees temporarily working in Australia who are covered by a bilateral agreement.

Five conditions and a five-year clock

The default rule favours the country where the work is done. Under Article 8, an employee working in Australia, and the employer, are subject only to Australian law for that work, which in this part of the agreement means the super guarantee. India’s law, for the same purpose, is its legislation on old-age, survivors’ and permanent total disability pensions for employed people, and the agreement names the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) as the Indian institution.

The exception is written for the secondee. The employee must be covered by Indian law and must have been sent by an employer subject to that law. The work in Australia must be for that employer or a related entity, meaning a member of the same wholly or majority owned group. The work must not be permanent. And fewer than five years must have passed since the posting began. When all five conditions hold, employer and employee answer only to Indian law for the work and the pay. EPFO’s brochure for international workers attaches a proviso to the exemption from the host country’s system: “provided they are complying with the Indian Social Security System”.

The five years “may be extended with the mutual consent of the Competent Authorities” of the two countries.

The certificate of coverage is the employer’s proof

Article 11 turns the arrangement into paper. At the employer’s request, the authority of the country whose law applies issues a certificate stating that the employee is subject to that country’s legislation and saying how long it remains valid. In India the certificate comes from EPFO, which says it is authorised to issue these certificates to employees posted to agreement countries. Its online portal for international workers is addressed to employers, who sign in with their Unified Portal credentials, and it lists applications for a certificate and for an extension. The portal has no sign-in for the worker whose super turns on the document.

The ATO’s side is shorter and blunter. An employer relying on the exemption “must keep a copy of the employee’s certificate of coverage to prove the exemption”, and the ATO may ask to see it. Its page on the certificate gives the alternative one sentence: “Without it, non-Australian employers must pay super in Australia (unless they meet an exemption).” Beneath that sits the general rule: “Generally, all employees are eligible for super guarantee.” Temporary residents are included.

The numbers are not small. By 27 July 2022, EPFO’s brochure records, 50,458 certificates had been issued under the agreement with Australia, and 4,197 of them were active on that date. Among India’s agreements only the one with Germany had produced more, with 74,427 issued.

When the secondment stops being one

The five conditions do not stay met on their own. A man born in Chennai, sent to Melbourne by his Bengaluru employer, who later takes a job with an Australian company outside that group, is no longer working for the employer or a related entity. A posting that hardens into permanent work falls outside the exception, and so does one that passes five years without an agreed extension. In each case the agreement’s default rule returns, and with it the super guarantee, applied as to any other job in Australia. Unless the employer acts, the payslip gives no signal when that line is crossed.

One treaty counts in years, the other in days

Income tax runs on a different treaty. The social security agreement lists the Australian laws it covers, and neither income tax nor the Medicare levy is among them. Salary belongs to the double tax agreement Australia and India signed in Canberra on 25 July 1991. Under its Article 15, pay that a resident of India earns for work done in Australia is taxable only in India if three conditions all hold: the person is present in Australia for no more than 183 days in total in an Australian year of income; the pay is made by, or on behalf of, an employer that is not an Australian resident; and the pay is not deductible against the taxable profits of a permanent establishment or fixed base the employer has here. If any one of the three fails, Australia may tax that pay. One treaty measures a posting in years. The other asks how many days of a tax year were spent here.

On the payslip, the missing super line looks identical whether the treaty is working as the two governments signed it or an employer has not paid what it owes. The difference is a certificate requested in India by the employer, kept by the employer, and shown to the ATO on request. The person it covers is not the one who has to produce it.