Payday Super: super is now due with the pay, not the quarter

What changed on 1 July 2026

Until 30 June 2026 an employer could pay super quarterly, up to 28 days after the quarter ended. Under Payday Super the deadline attaches to each payday instead. The June 2026 quarter was the last one under the old rules.

The deadline, with dates

A contribution is on time when the employee’s fund receives it, with the information it needs to allocate it to the member’s account, within 7 business days after the day you paid the wages. Sending it on day 7 is not enough if it lands on day 8.

The day you pay is called the QE day (the day you pay qualifying earnings) and counts as day 0. It is the day the money is paid, even if you entered the pay run on another day. For a contractor engaged mainly for their labour, it is the day you pay their invoice.

What a business day is

Any day that is not a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday that covers the whole of any Australian state or territory. That last part applies even when the holiday is not in your state: a Queensland-wide holiday pushes the deadline for an employer in Perth. A holiday that covers only part of a state, such as a regional show day, still counts as a business day.

The first two rows are the ATO’s own examples. The third applies the same rule to the Labour Day long weekend.

When you get longer

The ATO allows 20 business days instead of 7 for:

• the first contribution for a new employee
• the first contribution to a new fund for an existing employee, after you stop paying into the old one
• the first contribution after you rehire someone or start a new arrangement

Out-of-cycle payments such as a bonus, back pay, a commission or a payment in advance are due 7 business days after the employee’s next regular payday. Payments to people with no regular payday, such as a contractor paid on invoice, are not out of cycle.

Where a later payday’s due date would fall before an earlier payday’s extended due date, both share the later date. There is no separate extension for a small business.

The rate and what it applies to

The super guarantee rate is 12%. It has been 12% since 1 July 2025 and no further change is scheduled.

It applies to qualifying earnings. Those are ordinary time earnings (pay for ordinary hours, with no change to what counts), plus all commissions, salary sacrificed amounts that would otherwise have been qualifying earnings and payments to contractors engaged mainly for their labour. Overtime is still not included where an award or agreement sets the ordinary hours. The ATO page has the full list of what is in and out.

Super is not owed on qualifying earnings above the maximum contribution base, which is now an annual figure: $270,830 for 2026-27. Once an employee’s earnings for the year reach it, the minimum super stops until 1 July.

If super arrives late

You no longer lodge a statement. The ATO works out the super guarantee charge for each late payday and sends a notice of assessment. The charge is due on the day the assessment is made. It is paid to the ATO, not the fund. The charge has four parts:

1. The shortfall: 12% of qualifying earnings, less what reached the fund on time and any late contributions made before the assessment.
2. Notional earnings: interest at the general interest charge rate on the shortfall, from the day after the due date.
3. An administrative uplift of up to 60% of the first two parts, reduced by a clean record and by owning up early (table below).
4. A choice loading of 25% where you did not follow the choice of fund rules, capped at $1,200 a notice period.

If the charge is still unpaid 28 days after the assessment, the ATO issues a notice to pay. If that is not paid within another 28 days, a late payment penalty of 25% of the outstanding charge applies. It is 50% if you had the same penalty in the previous 24 months. It cannot be remitted.

For paydays from 1 July 2026 the charge itself is tax deductible. Interest on a late charge and the late payment penalty are not. A late contribution can no longer be elected to offset the charge: it reduces the shortfall if it arrives before the assessment and it is applied to the earliest payday with a shortfall.

What to do now

1. Move super to payday

   Send super in the same run as wages. The 7 days include the time your clearing house and the fund take. A rejection also needs time to fix. Funds now have 3 business days to allocate or return a contribution.

2. Replace the Small Business Clearing House

   It closed permanently on 1 July 2026. Use the super function in your payroll software, a commercial clearing house or a fund’s own payment service.

   Source: ATO, Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (opens in a new tab), checked 2 October 2026

3. Clean up fund details

   Check each employee’s USI, fund ABN and member number and verify a member before their first contribution where your software supports it. Messages that only warn today can become rejections.

4. Know your out-of-cycle payments

   Bonuses, back pay and commissions take the next regular payday’s deadline. Commissions are now qualifying earnings even for work outside ordinary hours.

5. Report it in Single Touch Payroll

   Each pay event now carries year-to-date qualifying earnings and super liability. From 1 July 2027 a report without them is rejected.

   Source: ATO, How to manage super during the changeover (opens in a new tab), checked 2 October 2026

Checklist

Print this page or work through it with whoever runs your pay.

1. Pay super on the same day as wages, not later in the week, so there is time to fix a rejected contribution.
2. Ask your payroll software, clearing house and the funds how long a contribution takes to arrive and where rejection messages appear.
3. Stop using the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House. It closed on 1 July 2026; pay through payroll software, a commercial clearing house or a fund’s own payment service.
4. Check every employee’s fund details: USI, fund ABN and member number, plus the electronic service address for a self-managed fund.
5. Clear the warning messages you get today. Payments that only warn now may be rejected.
6. Give each new starter a Standard choice form. If they do not choose, request their stapled fund before paying your default fund.
7. Note which payments are out of cycle (bonuses, back pay, commissions) and when the next regular payday falls.
8. Report qualifying earnings and super liability in Single Touch Payroll each payday.
9. Keep a record of each payday, the amount, the date the fund received it and any correction.
10. If a contribution is late, pay it into the fund and consider a voluntary disclosure as soon as you can.

Where LoggerIQ fits

LoggerIQ does not pay super. Australian payroll in LoggerIQ is not available yet, so super stays with your payroll software or provider.

What LoggerIQ does is the part before payday: rosters, verified clock entries and timesheets that a manager approves. Approved hours go to your payroll through the payroll export, to Xero or as a payroll file, so the pay run is not waiting on someone to chase a timesheet. Every day that run slips is a day off the 7.

How approved hours reach payroll

Free award pay calculators

Sources

Every page below was read on 2 October 2026.

• ATO, About Payday Super (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Payment deadlines for Payday Super (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, How to work out and pay super (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Paying super for a new employee or fund (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, What payments are qualifying earnings (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Maximum contribution base (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Super guarantee rates and thresholds (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, What happens if you don’t pay super correctly (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, What happens if you don’t pay the super guarantee charge (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Making a voluntary disclosure for Payday Super (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Getting it right: compliance in the first year of Payday Super (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, How to manage super during the changeover (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Payday Super checklist for employers (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (opens in a new tab)
• ATO, Payday Super terms we use (opens in a new tab)