Payday Super is a change to how you calculate and when you pay your employees’ super guarantee. 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), which is a new term that brings together ordinary time earnings (OTE) and other payments
- paid to an employees’ super fund on payday and received by the super fund within 7 business days (unless an extended timeframe applies, such as for new employees).
What’s Changing
Deadline for super payments
Now
Super guarantee payments must be received by a super fund within 28 days of the end of the quarter, but can be paid quarterly or more frequently, e.g. monthly.
The due dates are 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July.
From 1 July 2026
Super guarantee payments must be paid to an employees’ super fund at the same time as paying qualifying earnings (QE), on payday, and received by the superannuation fund within 7 days of paying the employee
Calculating super guarantee amounts
Now
The super guarantee amount is calculated as 12% of ordinary time earnings (OTE).
From 1 July 2026
The super guarantee amount is calculated as 12% of qualifying earnings (QE). QE includes OTE, salary sacrifice contributions and other amounts that are currently included in an employee’s salary or wages for super guarantee.
If you are unsure on what is included in Qualifying Earnings(QE) please speak to an APM team member .
Reporting super payments
Now
You report either OTE or super liability through Single Touch Payroll (STP). Being your accounting software e.g. Xero MYOB etc
From 1 July 2026
You report both QE and super liability through STP.
Late payments and the super guarantee charge (SGC)
Now
The SGC applies when amounts aren’t received by a super fund within 28 days of the end of a quarter. The SGC:
- is self-assessed by the employer, who must lodge an SGC statement
- is calculated based on salary and wages
- includes interest at 10% per annum
- includes a flat administration fee
- is not tax deductible.
From 1 July 2026
The SGC applies when amounts aren’t received by a super fund within 7 business days of payday (unless an extended timeframe applies, such as for new employees). The SGC:
- is assessed by the ATO
- is calculated based on QE
- includes interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge rate
- includes an administrative uplift, which can vary based on an employer’s history of meeting super guarantee obligations and may be reduced by a voluntary disclosure
- is tax deductible.
Penalties
Now
Penalties are a maximum of 200% of the SGC, which can be remitted in part or in full.
From 1 July 2026
Penalties are 25% or 50% of the unpaid SGC, depending on any prior penalties.
Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH)
Now
The SBSCH closed to new users on 1 October 2025.
Existing users have access to the service until 30 June 2026. All users must transition to an alternative option to pay their employees’ super.
From 1 July 2026
SBSCH is no longer available.
Checking employee data and processing payments
Now
- Super payments may take a number of days to be received by a super fund.
- Employers receive incomplete or inaccurate data from their employees, which causes errors when they try to contribute to a super fund and delayed payments.
- Employers are unaware of key changes to large super fund’s details.
From 1 July 2026
To help employers and intermediaries 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.
