Payday Super – Effective 1st July 2026

Posted on 29th June 2026 by GSCPA Admin

Key Changes:

• From 1 July 2026 you must pay employees their super guarantee on payday, at the same time as their salary and wages. 
• Super guarantee is calculated as 12% of an employee’s qualifying earnings (QE); and
• It must be paid to an employee’s super fund on payday and received by the super fund within 7 business days (unless an extended timeframe applies, such as for new employees)
• No more SGC Forms (Voluntary Disclosures instead)
• Significant admin fees and penalties for late payments
• The ATO Small Business Clearing House is closing at 30 June 2026

Calculating Super Guarantee Amounts

The super guarantee amount is calculated as 12% of qualifying earnings (QE).
Qualifying Earnings (QE) includes:

• Ordinary time earnings (OTE) i.e. payments for ordinary hours of work, including certain types of paid leave, allowances, bonuses and lump sum payments. There are no changes to what payments are considered OTE under Payday Super
• All commissions paid to an employee
• Salary sacrifice amounts that would qualify as qualifying earnings had they not been sacrificed to superannuation
• Earnings paid to workers who fall under the expanded definition of employee, including payments to independent contractors paid mainly for their labour.

New Deadline for Super Payments

From 1 July 2026 Super guarantee payments must be paid to an employees’ super fund at the same time as paying qualifying earnings (QE) (a new term that brings together ordinary time earnings (OTE) and other payments):

• on payday, and
• received by the super fund within 7 business days.

Extended Deadlines

Employers have an extended timeframe of up to 20 business days for funds to be received by the employee’s superannuation fund for contributions made:

• For new employees
• To a new complying super fund for an existing employee after you have stopped making contributions to another super fund.

If the second SG payment for a new employee would be due before the first, both payments will instead be due on the same date, being 20 business days after the first payday.

Out of Cycle Payments

If you make a payment of QE to an employee that is out of cycle with their regular payday, (e.g. a bonus payment) your SG contribution must be received by the super fund within 7 business days after the next payment of qualifying earnings to the employee that is not out of cycle.

Late Payments

To help employers meet the new deadlines, the SuperStream data and payment standards will be revised to:

• allow near real-time payments through the New Payments Platform
• improve error messaging so you can address errors faster
• provide a new member verification request, which enables employers to confirm that a super fund can match their employee contribution to the super fund for the first time and will accept a contribution for them.
• Improvements to the Fund Validation Service will also give employers early notice of key changes to large super fund’s details, such as fund mergers, that could affect their ability to make contributions to super funds.
• Super funds will have 3 business days to allocate or return contributions

You will also be able to request a stapled super fund and offer this to your employee at the same time you provide their choice form.

If your superannuation payment is not made by the new deadlines discussed above, then Super Guarantee Charge (SGC) will apply.

Super Guarantee Charge (SGC)

The SGC:

• is calculated based on QE
• includes interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge (GIC) rate
• includes an administrative uplift, which can be up to 60% of the shortfall
• is tax deductible (except for the GIC component)

Employers will no longer be required to lodge SG statements, instead the SGC will be assessed by the ATO in a “Notice to Pay”.

While not required, employers are encouraged to make a voluntary disclosure of any late payment or shortfall that is identified. This can assist to reduce the administrative uplift included in the SGC above.

Voluntary Disclosures

Voluntary disclosures for late payments of SG can be done through the lodgement of a voluntary disclosure statement (VDS) on the ATO portal.

Employers can make such a disclosure at any time before the ATO makes an assessment of the SG shortfall for a QE day.
Lodging a VDS may reduce the administrative uplift amount of the SG shortfall.

Penalties

If you do not pay the specified amount of SGC in the Notice to Pay within 28 days of the date on the notice, you will become liable to pay a late payment penalty for any amounts that remain unpaid (this is known as the outstanding SGC amount).

The late payment penalty is generally equal to 25% of the outstanding SGC amount. This will increase to 50% of the outstanding SGC amount if you have been liable for the same penalty in the previous 24 months.

This penalty cannot be remitted.

Small Business Clearing House (SBSCH)

The SBSCH closed to new users on 1 October 2025.

The SBSCH will close completely on 30 June 2026. All users must transition to an alternative option to pay their employees’ super. 

Please contact our office if you would like assistance determining a suitable alternative.

What you can do now:

• review your cash flow – super will go out with every payrun instead of quarterly, so plan for the change in timing
• if you are using the ATO’s Small Business Super Clearing House, start looking at alternative clearing house options for super stream
• review your existing payroll and super stream softwares to confirm they are set up for payday super – feel free to speak with us about alternatives if you have any doubts
• review your employee onboarding process to make sure super fund details are supplied up front

The ATO has confirmed that employers who are genuinely trying to do the right thing to pay super on time in the first year (1 July 2026 – 30 June 2027) and fix any issues quickly won’t be the focus of compliance action. That said, the changes still apply from day one, so it’s worth getting ahead of it now.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the new payday super rules, please contact our Team on (08) 9316 7000 to discuss.