Payday Super (2026): The 7-Business-Day Rule, Exceptions and the New Super Guarantee Charge

Payday Super is the biggest change to how Australian employers pay super in more than thirty years. Since 1 July 2026 there are no quarterly due dates: every pay run now carries its own super deadline, measured in business days, and missing one triggers a charge the ATO calculates for you. This guide is the detailed companion to our super guarantee guide. It explains exactly how the 7 business days rule is counted, when you get longer, which payments count, how late money is matched to paydays, what the new super guarantee charge costs, and what replaced the ATO clearing house — with dated examples in Australian dollars.

Quick answer

Under Payday Super, which applies to wages paid from 1 July 2026, you must pay 12% super guarantee on each employee's qualifying earnings every time you pay them, and the money must be received by the fund within 7 business days of payday. You get 20 business days for a new employee's first contribution or a new fund, and out-of-cycle payments such as bonuses ride on the next regular payday. Late or short payments attract a super guarantee charge assessed by the ATO for each payday.

• The clock starts on payday (the 'QE day') and stops when the fund receives the money

• Business days exclude weekends and any public holiday covering a whole state or territory — anywhere in Australia

• The ATO clearing house closed on 1 July 2026

• Charge = unpaid super + notional earnings + uplift of up to 60% + any 25% choice loading

• Qualifying earnings and super liability must be reported through Single Touch Payroll

What Payday Super changed on 1 July 2026

The law behind Payday Super is the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025, which passed Parliament on 4 November 2025 and received assent two days later. It rewrote most of the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 so that the obligation is tested payday by payday instead of quarter by quarter. Each day you pay an employee qualifying earnings is called a QE day, and each QE day has its own minimum contribution, its own deadline and, if you miss it, its own charge.

The rate didn't change. Super guarantee is still 12%, and for most employers the base it's calculated on hasn't changed either. What changed is timing, the name of the base (qualifying earnings instead of ordinary time earnings), the way the ATO collects shortfalls, and the tools you can use to pay. The ATO's free clearing house is gone, and the quarterly super guarantee statement you used to lodge when you were late no longer applies to post-July 2026 wages.

Super is also enforceable under workplace law. Section 116B of the Fair Work Act makes paying super a National Employment Standard, so an employee, a union or the Fair Work Ombudsman can pursue unpaid super as well as the ATO.

The changeover and the ATO's first-year approach

Quarterly rules still applied to wages paid up to 30 June 2026, so super for the April–June 2026 quarter was due by 28 July 2026. Payments received from 29 July were applied under the new rules. If you missed the June quarter, the old process — lodging a super guarantee statement and paying the quarterly charge — applies to that quarter.

The ATO has published a practical compliance guideline, PCG 2026/1, for the first year of Payday Super to 30 June 2027. Law firm summaries describe a risk-based approach: employers who are trying to comply and fix minor errors quickly are treated as lower risk, while employers who aren't paying super with each pay run, or are paying less than the minimum, are the focus. That isn't an exemption. The charge still applies by law; the guideline is about where the ATO spends its compliance effort.

The 7-business-day rule, step by step

The ATO's test is simple to state: a contribution is on time if the employee's fund receives it, with all the information needed to allocate it to the member's account, within 7 business days after the QE day. The law defines the "usual period" as starting on the QE day and ending on the seventh business day after it.

Three details trip people up.

Payday is the day the money leaves you. The ATO says the QE day is the day you actually pay qualifying earnings, even if you entered the pay run on another day, pay other staff on a different day, or have longer to report the payment through Single Touch Payroll. If you process wages on Wednesday for a Thursday payment, Thursday is the QE day.

Receipt by the fund is what counts. Under the old system, a payment accepted by the ATO clearing house was treated as paid. That safety net has gone. A contribution that is still with a commercial clearing house, held up by a bank, or bounced back because the member number is wrong hasn't been received. If your clearing house takes three business days to pass money on, you only control four. Since 1 July 2026 funds and service providers can use the New Payments Platform, which can get money to a fund on the same day, but not every provider is that fast.

"Business day" has a national definition. Section 6 of the Act says a business day is any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, or a public holiday for the whole of any state, the ACT or the Northern Territory. That cuts both ways. A state-wide holiday somewhere else in Australia gives you an extra day even if your own state is working — the ATO's own examples add a day for Northern Territory Picnic Day. A holiday that covers only part of a state, such as Royal Hobart Show Day or Melbourne Cup Day in metropolitan Melbourne, is still a business day.

Payday Super due dates — 2026 examples

Payday Fri 2 Oct 2026

Due Wed 14 Oct — Mon 5 Oct is a whole-state holiday in NSW, the ACT, SA and Queensland, so it isn't counted anywhere

Payday Fri 9 Oct 2026

Due Tue 20 Oct (7 business days)

Payday Thu 15 Oct 2026

Due Mon 26 Oct

Payday Fri 30 Oct 2026

Due Tue 10 Nov — Melbourne Cup Day (3 Nov) is a business day because it isn't state-wide

Payday Fri 20 Nov 2026

Due Tue 1 Dec

The safest habit is the one the ATO recommends: send super on payday, as part of the same pay run. Then the seven business days become a buffer for processing problems rather than a deadline you work towards.

When you get longer than seven business days

The Act sets out four situations where a contribution can be received later and still be on time. Each one is narrow, and you can't choose the longer period for convenience.

1. First contribution for a new employee or a new fund — 20 business days. The first contribution after an employee starts or restarts with you, and the first contribution to a new fund after you stop paying into their old one, can be received up to 20 business days after the QE day. This gives you time to receive a choice form, request stapled fund details from the ATO and set the fund up in payroll. Remember the separate obligation to give a standard choice form within 28 days of the employee starting.

2. Out-of-cycle payments. If an employee is normally paid on a regular schedule and you make a separate payment outside it — a bonus, a commission, an allowance, back pay or a payment in advance — the super on that payment is due within seven business days of the next regular payday. The ATO's example: a weekly employee gets a A$1,000 Christmas bonus on 7 December 2026 and their next wages on 10 December, so super on both is due 21 December. Payments to people with irregular paydays, such as a contractor paid on invoice, aren't out of cycle; the ATO's legislative instrument LI 2026/20 sets out the details.

3. Exceptional circumstances. The ATO can make a determination covering employers affected by a natural disaster or a widespread IT or communications outage. If one covers you, contributions are due by the later of 20 business days after the QE day and 20 business days after the determination is made. You don't apply — you self-assess whether the determination covers you and keep records showing it does. It isn't available for one business's own system failure.

4. The bunching rule. If a payday has an extended due date and the next payday's normal due date would come earlier, the later payday takes the same extended date. That stops a new employee's second and third contributions falling due before the first.

What you pay super on: qualifying earnings

Super guarantee is 12% of qualifying earnings paid on the QE day. Section 10A of the Act defines qualifying earnings as ordinary time earnings plus a few extra items. The ATO stresses that for most employers the amount doesn't change: everything you included in super calculations before 1 July 2026 is still included.

The differences are at the edges. All commissions now count, including commissions earned entirely outside ordinary hours, which weren't ordinary time earnings before. Salary sacrificed amounts count as if they'd been paid as wages, so a sacrifice arrangement can't reduce the employer contribution. And for people who are employees only under the extended super definition — contractors paid mainly for their labour, performers, sportspeople and company directors — the payments for their labour are qualifying earnings whether or not they relate to "ordinary hours".

Overtime deserves a careful look. The ATO says overtime is excluded only where the employee's ordinary hours are clearly identified in an award or agreement. If you can't separate overtime from ordinary hours — for example an award-free employee on a flat salary that is said to "cover" extra hours — all hours worked are treated as ordinary and the whole payment is qualifying earnings. Our award wages guide explains where ordinary hours and overtime are defined.

There's also a ceiling. For 2026-27 you don't have to pay super guarantee on an employee's qualifying earnings above the annual maximum contribution base of A$270,830, worked out on a year-to-date basis. Our super guarantee guide has a worked example.

How contributions are matched to paydays

Under quarterly super you could make one payment and have it cover the whole quarter. Under Payday Super the law matches each contribution to QE days automatically. Section 18C applies eligible contributions in the order the fund receives them, to the earliest QE day that still has an amount outstanding. You can't direct a payment to a particular payday.

That has practical consequences. If one payday's super was missed and you catch up later, the next contribution you send goes to the oldest unpaid payday first — which can leave the current payday short and create a second late payment. When you fix an error, pay the arrears in addition to the current pay run's super, not instead of it.

How the fund's receipts are matched to paydays

Step 1

Fund receives a contribution

Step 2

Applied to the oldest payday still short

you can't choose

Step 3

Any balance goes to the next payday

Step 4

Excess counts for up to 12 months

prepayment rule

Prepayments still work in a limited way. A contribution received in the 12 months before a QE day can be counted towards that QE day if it hasn't already been used for an earlier one. Overpaying one week therefore reduces what you must pay later, but the safest approach is to keep each pay run's super equal to what that pay run requires, so your records reconcile cleanly.

Contributions also have to be eligible: paid to a complying fund (or retirement savings account), able to be allocated to the member, and not a salary sacrifice contribution. Payments a fund rejects because of a wrong member number or closed account aren't received, so a SuperStream error message is a deadline problem. Fix the details and resend straight away.

The new super guarantee charge

If a payday's super isn't received on time, you're liable for the super guarantee charge (SGC) for that QE day. You don't lodge a statement to calculate it any more: the ATO assesses it, using Single Touch Payroll data, fund reporting, employee reports and voluntary disclosures. Under the ATO's guidance the charge has four parts.

1. Individual final shortfall — the super still unpaid when the ATO assesses, after counting late contributions received before the assessment.
2. Notional earnings — interest on the original shortfall at the general interest charge rate (11.51% for October–December 2026), compounding daily from the day after the deadline until the shortfall is paid or the assessment is made.
3. Administrative uplift — 60% of the first two parts combined. Regulations reduce it in some cases, including where you disclose quickly and where you haven't had an ATO-initiated assessment in the previous 24 months.
4. Choice loading — 25% of contributions for a QE day where you didn't follow choice of fund or stapling rules, capped at A$1,200 per notice period.

The most useful thing to understand is what happens if you pay late but before the ATO assesses. The late contribution reduces the final shortfall — potentially to nil — and stops notional earnings accruing. The uplift is then calculated on a much smaller amount. In other words, a mistake fixed within days costs a few dollars; the same mistake left for the ATO to find costs the full super plus 40% to 60% on top.

Once an assessment issues, the charge is payable straight away. If it's still unpaid 28 days later, the ATO must send a notice to pay. If that isn't paid within 28 days of the notice, a late payment penalty of 25% of the unpaid amount applies, or 50% if you incurred the same penalty in the previous 24 months. The ATO says this penalty can't be remitted. General interest charge also accrues on unpaid SGC.

One change in employers' favour: SGC you pay for QE days from 1 July 2026 is tax-deductible. General interest charge on late SGC and the late payment penalty aren't.

The clearing house closure and how to pay now

The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House stopped taking new users on 1 October 2025 and closed on 1 July 2026. The main alternatives are:

• Payroll software with built-in super payments. Most Single Touch Payroll-enabled products can send SuperStream contributions when you finalise the pay run, which is the simplest way to pay on payday.
• A super fund's employer clearing service. Many large funds offer a free or low-cost portal that pays to any fund, not just their own.
• A commercial clearing house. Check its processing time and whether it uses the New Payments Platform; a three-day processing lag eats almost half your deadline.

Whatever you use, keep your own records. The Fair Work Regulations require you to record each contribution's amount, the period it covers, the date it was made, the fund, and the basis for choosing that fund — for 7 years. If you used the ATO clearing house, keep your past payment history in your own files. Our employee records guide lists everything else you must keep.

Single Touch Payroll reporting under Payday Super

The ATO matches what you report through Single Touch Payroll with what funds report receiving. From 1 July 2026, employers must report each employee's year-to-date qualifying earnings and super liability in their STP pay events. During a transition year the ATO is still accepting reports without them, but from 1 July 2027 STP reports that leave them out will be rejected. Talk to your payroll provider now if your software isn't populating these fields, rather than discovering it when a report bounces. Our Single Touch Payroll guide covers the reporting basics and deadlines.

Because the data flows both ways, an underpayment is far more visible than it was under quarterly reporting. If STP shows A$600 of super liability for a payday and the fund reports receiving A$500, the gap shows up without anyone lodging a complaint.

Setting up a pay run that meets Payday Super

1. 1

   Map every pay code to qualifying earnings

   Check commissions, allowances, bonuses and salary sacrifice. Overtime is only excluded where ordinary hours are clearly defined.

2. 2

   Confirm each employee's fund before the first payday

   Get a choice form or request stapled fund details, so the first contribution can be made inside the 20-business-day window.

3. 3

   Pay super in the same pay run as wages

   Send contributions through SuperStream when you finalise the pay run, not in a separate batch later.

4. 4

   Watch for fund rejections

   Treat a rejected contribution as unpaid. Fix member details and resend the same day.

5. 5

   Report qualifying earnings in STP

   Report qualifying earnings and super liability year-to-date with each pay event.

6. 6

   Reconcile weekly

   Compare super liability with fund receipts each week and fix gaps before the ATO assesses.

Worked examples in A$

These examples use a wage of A$30.00 an hour and the 2026 dates above.

1. Weekly casual café worker. Lily works 25 hours and is paid A$750 of qualifying earnings on Thursday 15 October 2026. Super is 12% × A$750 = A$90, and it must be received by her fund by Monday 26 October. The café's payroll software sends it via a fund clearing service on payday, and it arrives on Monday 19 October — on time.

2. A new employee and the bunching rule. A Perth plumbing business hires Ravi, paid weekly on Thursdays from 15 October 2026. His first contribution can be received up to 20 business days later, by 12 November. His second and third paydays (22 and 29 October) would normally be due on 2 and 9 November, but because those dates fall before 12 November, they share the 12 November date. His fourth payday, 5 November, is due on 16 November as normal. The business should still aim to pay each one with the pay run.

3. A bonus paid between paydays. A fortnightly-paid sales manager receives a A$5,000 commission on Tuesday 27 October 2026. Her next regular payday is Friday 30 October. Super of A$600 on the commission joins the super on her regular wages and is due by Tuesday 10 November.

4. A late payment fixed quickly. A payroll error means A$450 of super for the 9 October payday (due 20 October) isn't sent. The bookkeeper notices and the money reaches the fund on 19 November — 30 days late. Because it arrives before any ATO assessment, the final shortfall is nil. Notional earnings at 11.51% compounding daily for 30 days are about A$4.28, and an uplift of 60% of that is about A$2.57. The charge is roughly A$6.85, before any reduction.

5. The same mistake left for the ATO. If nobody notices and the ATO assesses six months after the deadline, notional earnings are about A$26.28 (assuming the rate stays at 11.51%). With no ATO-initiated assessment in the past two years, the uplift is reduced from 60% to 40%: 40% × (A$450 + A$26.28) ≈ A$190.51. The charge is about A$666.79 — almost 100 times example 4 — and the A$450 still reaches the employee through the ATO.

The figures in examples 4 and 5 are illustrative. The ATO calculates the actual charge, and the uplift reductions depend on your circumstances and on when you disclose.

Common Payday Super mistakes

• Counting calendar days. The deadline is seven business days, and a whole-state holiday anywhere adds a day. Count it with the national definition, not your local calendar.
• Treating "sent" as "received". The fund must receive and be able to allocate the money. Allow for clearing house and bank processing.
• Batching super monthly. A monthly super run for a weekly payroll means most contributions are late. Super follows each payday.
• Using the 20-day window for everyone. It applies only to the first contribution for a new employee or a new fund.
• Forgetting out-of-cycle payments. Back pay, bonuses and commissions paid separately need super with the next regular payday.
• Ignoring rejected contributions. A bounced payment is unpaid. Fix and resend the same day.
• Paying arrears instead of current super. Catch-up money is applied to the oldest unpaid payday, which can make the current one late.
• Not reporting qualifying earnings in STP. From 1 July 2027 reports without it will be rejected.

Official links

• Payment deadlines for Payday SuperATO — 7 and 20 business days, out-of-cycle, bunching
• What payments are qualifying earningsATO — tables of included and excluded payments
• The new super guarantee chargeATO — components, penalties, deductibility
• What to do if you miss a Payday Super contributionATO — fixing errors and voluntary disclosure
• Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992Sections 6, 10A, 18C–20C and 59A–59C

What to do next

Pick one recent pay run and test it against the rules on this page: was super sent with wages, did the fund receive it within seven business days, and did STP show qualifying earnings? If any answer is no, fix the process before the next payday rather than waiting for an ATO letter. For the bigger picture on rates, eligibility, choice of fund and the maximum contribution base, read our super guarantee guide, and check your payslips show the super amount and fund for each pay.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm on the official source or with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

When did Payday Super start?

Payday Super applies to qualifying earnings paid on or after 1 July 2026. From that date employers must pay super guarantee with each pay run, and each contribution must be received by the employee's fund within 7 business days of payday. Super for the April–June 2026 quarter still followed the old quarterly rules and was due by 28 July 2026.

What counts as a business day for Payday Super?

Any day except a Saturday, a Sunday, or a public holiday that applies to the whole of any state or territory. So a state-wide holiday in another state, such as Labour Day in New South Wales, pauses the count for every employer in Australia. A holiday that covers only part of a state, such as Melbourne Cup Day or Royal Hobart Show Day, still counts as a business day.

Does the 7 days start when I pay super or when the fund receives it?

The test is when the fund receives the contribution with enough information to allocate it to the member's account. Money sitting with a clearing house or in transit doesn't count. If your clearing house takes three business days to pass contributions on, you only have four business days of your own, which is why the ATO recommends paying super on payday.

How long do I have for a new employee's first super payment?

The first contribution for a new or rehired employee, or the first one to a new fund after the employee switches, must reach the fund within 20 business days of the payday. Later paydays that would fall due before that extended date share the same later due date under the ATO's bunching rule. After that, the normal 7 business days applies.

What is the penalty for paying super late under Payday Super?

The ATO assesses a super guarantee charge for the late payday. It includes any super still unpaid, notional earnings at the general interest charge rate, an administrative uplift of up to 60% and any choice loading. If the assessed charge isn't paid after a notice to pay, a penalty of 25% applies, rising to 50% for repeat cases. The charge is now tax-deductible.

Can I still use the ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House?

No. The ATO stopped new registrations on 1 October 2025 and closed the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House on 1 July 2026. Employers now pay through payroll software with built-in super payments, a commercial clearing house, a super fund's employer portal or another SuperStream-compliant service.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 13 October 2026. Each rate and limit is stored once with its own official source and review date, and official update channels are monitored daily so changes are picked up. How we verify

1. 1.Payment deadlines for Payday Super — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 13 October 2026
2. 2.The new super guarantee charge — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 13 October 2026
3. 3.What payments are qualifying earnings — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 13 October 2026
4. 4.The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is closing — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 13 October 2026
5. 5.Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 — compilation C2026C00272 (in force 1 July 2026) — Federal Register of Legislation · accessed 13 October 2026
6. 6.Fair Work Act 2009 — section 116B (NES superannuation contributions) — Federal Register of Legislation · accessed 13 October 2026
7. 7.Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 — Parliament of Australia · accessed 13 October 2026
8. 8.Payday Super: Frequently Asked Questions — Clayton Utz · accessed 13 October 2026