What Is Payday Super?

What changed on 1 July 2026

Before 1 July 2026, employers could pay super guarantee once a quarter, by the 28th day after the quarter ended. Under Payday Super, each payday has its own deadline. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 passed Parliament on 4 November 2025 and received assent on 6 November 2025, so this is settled law rather than a proposal.

The rate has not changed: super guarantee is still 12%. What changed is the base, the timing and the penalty system. Super is now calculated on qualifying earnings, the contribution has to be received by the fund within 7 business days of the payday, and the ATO calculates and assesses any super guarantee charge itself. Employers no longer lodge a super guarantee statement.

Earnings paid up to 30 June 2026 stay under the old quarterly rules. Super for the April to June 2026 quarter was due by 28 July 2026 under the old system.

• Super is due for each payday, not each quarter
• Qualifying earnings replace ordinary time earnings as the base
• The ATO assesses the super guarantee charge for each payday
• The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is no longer available
• Super funds must allocate or return contributions within 3 business days, down from 20
• STP reports now include qualifying earnings and the super liability

How the 7 business day rule works

The ATO calls the day you pay an employee qualifying earnings the QE day. It is usually your normal payday, and it stays the same even if you process the pay run on a different day. The contribution is on time if the fund receives it within 7 business days after the QE day, with enough information to allocate it to the employee's account.

A business day is any day except a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday that covers a whole state or territory. A holiday covering only part of a state, such as a local show day, does not count as a non-business day. The deadline is about when the fund receives the money, so allow for your clearing house or payroll software's processing time. The ATO's advice is that paying on payday is best practice.

Worked example: you pay staff on Friday 6 November 2026. The 7 business days after that are 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 17 November, so the fund must receive the contribution by Tuesday 17 November 2026. If the same payday included a new starter's first pay, their first contribution has the longer 20 business day window, which ends on Friday 4 December 2026.

Exceptions to the 7 business day deadline

Some payments get more time. The first contribution for a new employee, or for an existing employee who has moved to a new fund, is due within 20 business days after the QE day. This also applies to a worker you rehire under a new arrangement.

Out-of-cycle payments, such as bonuses, back pay, commissions or allowances paid outside the normal pay schedule, are due on the same date as the next regular payday's contribution. Payments to workers who have no regular payday, such as contractors paid on invoice, are not treated as out-of-cycle, so the normal 7 business day rule applies to them.

The ATO can also declare exceptional circumstances for a class of employers, such as a natural disaster or a widespread IT outage. Contributions are then due by the later of 20 business days after the QE day or 20 business days after the ATO's determination. You do not apply for this, but you should keep records showing the determination covers you.

The new super guarantee charge and penalties

If super is late, the ATO assesses a super guarantee charge for that QE day. It has four parts: the shortfall, notional earnings at the general interest charge rate compounding daily, an administrative uplift, and a choice loading where choice of fund rules were not followed. Unlike the old system, these components are tax deductible for QE days from 1 July 2026.

The administrative uplift starts at 60% of the shortfall and notional earnings. It falls by 20 percentage points if the ATO has not issued you an ATO-initiated assessment in the previous 2 years, and it falls further if you lodge a voluntary disclosure before the ATO assesses you. Lodged within 30 days of the QE day with a clean history, the uplift is 0%. Choice loading is 25% of the affected contributions, capped at $1,200 per notice period.

Paying late still helps, because late contributions received before assessment reduce the shortfall. Once the ATO assesses the charge, it is paid to the ATO, not the fund. If it is not paid within 28 days, the ATO issues a notice to pay and a late payment penalty can apply. The ATO says penalties are now 25% or 50% of the unpaid charge, depending on prior penalties, down from a maximum of 200% before 1 July 2026. Interest on a late charge payment and late payment penalties are not deductible.

What employers should do now

If you used the ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, you need another way to pay. It closed to new users on 1 October 2025 and has not been accessible since 1 July 2026. Alternatives include the super payment service in your payroll software, a commercial clearing house or paying funds directly through SuperStream. From 1 July 2026 contributions can also travel through the New Payments Platform, which may allow same-day receipt by the fund.

For 2026-27, the ATO says it will not review employers who are paying super each payday and fixing errors quickly. Its compliance focus is on employers who are not moving to more frequent payments, not fixing errors, or not paying super at all. If you find an error and no assessment has issued, pay the correct amount to the fund as soon as you can.

• Set super to pay with every pay run, not quarterly
• Check that payroll calculates super on qualifying earnings
• Move off the ATO clearing house if you have not already
• Allow for clearing house processing time inside the 7 day window
• Watch for fund rejection and error messages and fix them quickly

When to get help

Payday Super is mostly a payroll set-up job: the right earnings, the right pay schedule and a payment method fast enough to meet the deadline. Most problems come from pay items that do not map to qualifying earnings, or a clearing house that takes too long to deliver the money.

If you have missed contributions since 1 July 2026, paying the fund and lodging a voluntary disclosure quickly costs far less than waiting for the ATO to assess you. Acquire Strategic Accounting, a Xero Platinum Partner in Brisbane, can review your payroll settings and any late contributions.