From 1 July 2026, employers no longer pay super guarantee quarterly. Under Payday Super, you must pay your employees’ super on every payday, calculate it on a broader measure of earnings called qualifying earnings, and get it into their super fund within 7 business days. Miss that window and the penalty regime is now stricter and less forgiving than it used to be.
Here is exactly what changed, section by section.
The payment deadline moved from quarterly to per payday
Before 1 July 2026, super guarantee contributions had to reach an employee’s fund within 28 days of the end of each quarter, with due dates of 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July.
From 1 July 2026, that quarterly buffer is gone. Contributions must be received by the employee’s super fund within 7 business days after you pay them, with enough information attached for the fund to allocate it to the right member account. There are some exceptions to the 7 business day rule, including for new employees.
Practically, this means super is now a payroll-cycle obligation, not a quarterly one. If you run payroll weekly or fortnightly, you now have a super deadline every single cycle.
Super guarantee is now calculated on “qualifying earnings,” not just OTE
Before 1 July 2026, the super guarantee amount was 12% of ordinary time earnings (OTE).From 1 July 2026, it is 12% of qualifying earnings, a new consolidated term. Qualifying earnings include ordinary time earnings, all commissions, salary sacrifice contributions, and other amounts that were previously included in an employee’s salary or wages for super guarantee. The 12% rate itself has not changed.
If your payroll process was built around OTE as the reference figure, this is the change worth checking first. Getting the earnings base wrong now flows straight into an underpayment.
Reporting through STP now covers both figures
Before 1 July 2026, employers reported either OTE or the super liability through Single Touch Payroll.From 1 July 2026, you report both qualifying earnings and the super liability through STP. This gives the ATO real-time visibility into what you owe and when it is due, which is part of why the compliance side of Payday Super is so much tighter than the old quarterly system.
Late payments and the super guarantee charge work differently
Before 1 July 2026, the super guarantee charge (SGC) applied once a payment was more than 28 days late from the end of a quarter. It was self-assessed, meaning the employer lodged their own SGC statement. It was calculated on salary and wages, carried a flat 10% annual interest rate plus an administration fee, and was not tax deductible.
From 1 July 2026, the SGC applies once a payment is more than 7 business days late (unless a longer exception applies). The key differences:
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The ATO assesses it directly. Employers no longer lodge their own SGC statement.
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It is calculated on qualifying earnings, not salary and wages.
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Interest compounds daily at the general interest charge rate, rather than a flat 10%.
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A new administrative uplift amount is added to reflect the cost of enforcement and to encourage early disclosure. It can be reduced where the ATO has no prior compliance history against you and you lodge a voluntary disclosure.
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Unlike before, the SGC is now tax deductible.
Penalties are lower on paper, but the trigger point is much tighter
Before 1 July 2026, penalties could run as high as 200% of the SGC, though this could be remitted in part or in full.From 1 July 2026, penalties sit at 25% or 50% of the unpaid SGC, depending on prior penalty history. The maximum penalty is lower, but because the SGC itself is now triggered by a 7 business day miss rather than a 28 day one, there is far less room to be late before a penalty applies at all.
The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House has closed
The SBSCH stopped accepting new users on 1 October 2025. Existing users kept access until 30 June 2026. From 1 July 2026, the SBSCH is no longer accessible at all. Any business still relying on it needs to have already moved to an alternative way of paying employee super.
SuperStream has been upgraded to support faster payments
To make the 7 business day deadline workable, the SuperStream data and payment standards were revised. From 1 July 2026, these include near real-time payments through the New Payments Platform, clearer error messaging so problems can be fixed faster, and a new member verification request that lets employers confirm upfront that a fund will accept and match a contribution before it’s sent.
The ATO has also improved the Fund Validation Service, giving employers earlier notice of changes like fund mergers that could otherwise disrupt a contribution.
Super funds themselves are on a tighter clock too. Before 1 July 2026, funds had 20 business days to allocate or return a contribution. From 1 July 2026, that is down to 3 business days.
Offering a stapled fund got easier, slightly earlier
From 27 March 2026, employers can request an employee’s stapled super fund details and offer that fund to the employee at the same time as their choice form, rather than only after a choice form goes unreturned.
What Payday Super has not changed
Worth confirming, since it is easy to assume everything moved: Payday Super does not change who you owe super to. You still pay super for eligible employees, including independent contractors paid mainly for their labour. The 12% super guarantee rate is unchanged, and so are the core payroll systems and platforms you use to make contributions, aside from the SBSCH closure noted above.
What this means if you are running payroll for an accounting or bookkeeping client base
For accounting firms and internal finance teams, Payday Super turns super from a quarterly compliance task into a recurring, payday-by-payday one, with a much smaller margin for error and a faster-moving penalty clock behind it. That is a real capacity question heading into a financial year already shaped by EOFY workload spikes, not just a system update.
This is the kind of compliance-driven capacity gap that certified offshore support is built for. IOG Global’s teams operate under ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, alongside CPA Australia Recognised Employer Partnership and AICPA & CIMA Training Partnership, so payroll and super administration support can scale into a new deadline structure without the compliance risk of an uncertified, ad hoc hire.
If you want to talk through what Payday Super changes for your specific payroll setup,
Source – https://www.ato.gov.au
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