Last updated: 06 September 2026. Written by Julian Mahoney, Director, FreeMyCloud.
Payday super started on 1 July 2026. Since that date, an Australian employer’s super guarantee contributions must be received by the employee’s super fund within 7 business days of the day the employee is paid qualifying earnings. The quarterly cycle, and the 28 day window that came after each quarter, no longer applies to earnings paid on or after 1 July 2026. The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closed permanently on the same date. If a contribution lands late, the ATO now assesses a super guarantee charge itself rather than waiting for the employer to self-assess, and interest on the shortfall compounds daily.
This article covers what payday super changed for Australian employers, the deadline and its exceptions, what now counts as qualifying earnings, how the new super guarantee charge is calculated, and what a compliant pay run process looks like. It covers employers paying employees and eligible contractors. It does not cover self-managed super fund administration, defined benefit interests, or super for employees posted overseas.
What changed for Australian employers on 1 July 2026?
Four things changed at once, and they interact.
First, the timing. Super is now tied to the pay event rather than the quarter. The ATO calls the day an employer pays qualifying earnings the QE day, and the contribution has to be in the fund’s hands within 7 business days of it. A business paying fortnightly now has 26 super deadlines a year instead of four.
Second, the base. The amount is calculated on qualifying earnings, a slightly wider concept than ordinary time earnings. The main practical change is that all commissions count, including commissions for work performed entirely outside ordinary hours.
Third, the consequence of being late. The super guarantee charge has been rebuilt. It is now assessed by the ATO, it carries a daily compounding interest component and an administrative uplift, and the charge itself became tax deductible.
Fourth, the plumbing. The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closed. Employers who relied on it have had to move to a payroll product, a super fund’s own clearing house, or a commercial clearing house, all reporting through SuperStream.
The obligation to offer choice of fund, the stapled fund rules and the SuperStream data standards did not change. What changed is how quickly the money and the data have to move.
Super guarantee for the quarter ending 30 June 2026 was still due under the quarterly rules, with contributions needing to reach employees’ funds by 28 July 2026. The ATO has confirmed the late payment offset was not available for that final quarterly payment.
How long do employers have to pay super under payday super?
The general rule is 7 business days from the QE day for the contribution to be received by the fund. Received, not sent. A payment that leaves the bank account on day 6 and settles with the fund on day 9 is late, so the practical planning window is shorter than 7 days.
A business day excludes weekends and public holidays that apply across a state or territory, even where the employer operates somewhere else. A pay run in the week of a state public holiday has a longer calendar window than the same pay run a fortnight later.
There are several extended deadlines, and they are narrower than they first appear.
| Situation | Deadline for the contribution to be received |
|---|---|
| Standard pay run | 7 business days after the QE day |
| First contribution for a new employee | 20 business days after the first QE day |
| First contribution to a new complying fund for an existing employee | 20 business days after that QE day |
| Out of cycle payments, such as a bonus, commission or back payment made off the normal pay schedule | Aligned to the next payment of qualifying earnings that is not out of cycle |
| Exceptional circumstances covered by an ATO determination, such as a natural disaster or a widespread IT outage | The later of 20 business days after the QE day, or 20 business days after the determination is made |
| Overlapping due dates, where a second QE day falls inside the window for the first | The second QE day takes the later due date of the first |
The full deadline rules, including the bunching provisions, are set out on the ATO’s payment deadlines for payday super page.
What counts as qualifying earnings under payday super?
Qualifying earnings is the base the 12% is applied to. It is built on ordinary time earnings and then widened.
| Counted as qualifying earnings | Not counted |
|---|---|
| Ordinary time earnings, including certain paid leave, allowances, bonuses and lump sums | Fringe benefits and employer super contributions |
| All commissions, including commissions solely for work performed entirely outside ordinary hours | Reimbursements of actual expenses incurred |
| Amounts salary sacrificed that would otherwise have been qualifying earnings | Bonuses for work performed entirely outside ordinary hours |
| Payments to contractors engaged mainly for their labour | Annual leave loading referable to a lost opportunity to work overtime |
| Payments to sportspeople, performers and similar for specified services | Parental leave, jury duty, community service and defence reserve leave |
| Termination payments, other than payment in lieu of notice |
Two categories are worth checking against a payroll file rather than assuming. Employees under 18, and domestic or private workers, are excluded where they work 30 hours or less in a week. Long service leave paid through a portable scheme is also excluded. The complete list is on the ATO’s what payments are qualifying earnings page.
The commission change is the one that most often shows up as a shortfall. A sales business that had mapped after-hours commission as excluded from ordinary time earnings under the old rules will now be short on every pay run until the mapping is corrected.
How much super is payable, and is there still a maximum contribution base?
The super guarantee rate is 12% of qualifying earnings. That rate has applied since 1 July 2025 and was the last legislated step up.
The maximum contribution base still exists, but it now works across the financial year rather than quarter by quarter. For 2026-27 it is $270,830. Once an employer has paid an employee that much in qualifying earnings across the year, super guarantee is not required on further earnings paid to that employee for the rest of the year. The figure is derived from the concessional contributions cap of $32,500 for 2026-27, multiplied by 100 and divided by the 12% rate.
Under the old rules the cap was tested each quarter, at $62,500 per quarter for 2025-26. From 1 July 2026 the test runs across the whole financial year at $270,830. For an employee with lumpy earnings, that changes when the cap is reached and it may change the total super payable for the year.
What happens if a super payment arrives late under payday super?
The super guarantee charge applies. The employer no longer self-assesses it. The ATO issues a notice of assessment covering any contribution that was unpaid, underpaid or late, and the charge has four components.
| Component | How it is worked out |
|---|---|
| Individual final super guarantee shortfall | The unpaid super amount for each employee |
| Notional earnings | The general interest charge rate applied to the base shortfall, compounded daily, running from the day after the deadline until a late contribution clears the shortfall or the ATO issues an assessment |
| Administrative uplift | 60% of the total shortfalls and notional earnings for that QE day, reflecting the cost of enforcement |
| Choice loading | 25% of the value of contributions for a QE day where the choice of fund rules were not followed, capped at $1,200 for each notice period |
The general interest charge rate for the October to December 2026 quarter is 11.51% annually, and it was 11.43% for July to September 2026. Because notional earnings compound daily, a small shortfall discovered months later is a materially larger number than the same shortfall found in the following pay run.
On top of the charge, a late payment penalty of 25% of the unpaid super guarantee charge applies where the charge is still unpaid 28 days after a notice to pay. That rises to 50% where the same penalty was applied in the previous 24 months, and these penalties cannot be remitted.
Two points cut the other way. The super guarantee charge is now tax deductible, although the associated general interest charge and the late payment penalty are not. And a voluntary disclosure lodged before a notice of assessment arrives can reduce the administrative uplift. Once the assessment issues, that option closes.
The ATO’s guidance is that paying the outstanding amount to the employee’s fund as soon as the gap is found reduces the charge, and that even a partial payment reduces it. Notional earnings stop accruing once the shortfall is cleared.
What replaced the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House?
Nothing replaced it directly. The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closed permanently from 1 July 2026, and no new registrations were accepted before then. Employers who used it have had to move to one of three alternatives: the clearing house built into their payroll software, a clearing house offered by their default super fund, or a commercial clearing house from a digital service provider.
Whichever route a business takes, the payment and the associated data have to move through SuperStream, and the fund needs enough information to allocate the contribution to the right member. A contribution that reaches the fund inside 7 business days but cannot be allocated because the data is incomplete is not a contribution that has been received for these purposes.
The practical question for a business that moved recently is settlement time. Clearing houses differ in how long they take to pass money to a fund, and that lag sits inside the 7 business day window rather than outside it. This is worth confirming in writing with the provider.
What does a payday super payroll process look like in practice?
The change is less about new tasks and more about the cadence. A quarterly obligation tolerated a monthly reconciliation. A 7 business day obligation does not.
The checks that matter most in each pay run are:
- Earnings mapping. Every pay item in the payroll file classified correctly as qualifying earnings or not, with commissions and after-hours bonuses reviewed specifically.
- Fund and member data. Valid fund details and member numbers for every employee before the pay run, because a rejected contribution comes back after the window has started running.
- New starters. Choice of fund offered and documented, or a stapled fund request made, using the 20 business day first contribution window rather than assuming it applies to later pays.
- Settlement timing. A known, tested lag between submitting to the clearing house and the fund receiving the money, with the pay calendar built backwards from that.
- Exception reporting. A standing check for rejected or unallocated contributions after each pay run, not at quarter end.
For a business running weekly or fortnightly pays, that is between 26 and 52 cycles a year where each of those checks has to happen on time. It is the frequency, not the difficulty, that catches people out, and it is the main reason payroll work has moved higher up the list of tasks Australian businesses hand to a dedicated bookkeeper. FreeMyCloud has provided outsourced payroll services to Australian businesses since 2010, running pay runs, Single Touch Payroll reporting and super processing to a fixed cycle in Australian business hours.
Related reading: BAS due dates in Australia 2026-27 and hospitality payroll in Australia, which covers award interpretation on the earnings side of the same pay run.
Payroll running to a 7 day clock
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Frequently asked questions
When did payday super start in Australia?
Payday super started on 1 July 2026. It applies to qualifying earnings paid to employees on or after that date. Earnings paid up to 30 June 2026 stayed under the quarterly super guarantee rules, with the final quarterly contribution for the June 2026 quarter due to reach funds by 28 July 2026.
Is the payday super deadline 7 calendar days or 7 business days?
Seven business days. The contribution has to be received by the employee’s super fund within 7 business days after the QE day, which is the day the employee is paid qualifying earnings. Business days exclude weekends and public holidays that apply across a state or territory, even if the employer operates in a different state.
Does super have to be paid on the same day as wages under payday super?
No. The obligation is about when the money reaches the fund, not when it leaves the employer. Super can be sent after the pay run as long as the fund receives it, with enough information to allocate it, within 7 business days of the QE day. Because clearing house settlement takes time, the usable window is shorter than 7 days.
What is the super guarantee rate for 2026-27?
12% of qualifying earnings. The rate reached 12% on 1 July 2025 and that was the final legislated increase. The maximum contribution base for 2026-27 is $270,830 of qualifying earnings across the financial year, above which super guarantee is not required for that employee.
What happens if super is paid late under payday super?
The ATO assesses a super guarantee charge. It includes the shortfall, notional earnings calculated at the general interest charge rate and compounded daily, an administrative uplift of 60% of those two amounts, and a choice loading of 25% where choice of fund rules were not followed. Paying the outstanding amount to the fund promptly reduces the charge.
Can employers still use the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House?
No. The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closed permanently from 1 July 2026. Employers now pay through their payroll software’s clearing house, their super fund’s clearing house, or a commercial clearing house from a digital service provider. All of these report through SuperStream.
This article is general information about Australian bookkeeping and reporting obligations, current as at 06 September 2026. It is not tax, financial or legal advice. FreeMyCloud is not a registered tax agent and does not prepare or lodge tax returns. Rates, thresholds and dates change. Confirm your own position with your registered tax or BAS agent.
