Once the Payday Super legislative reform is implemented on 1 July 2026, employers must pay employee’s super at the same time as salary and wages.
How the ATO will monitor compliance:
The ATO will assess an employer’s efforts to comply with superannuation guarantee (SG) obligations and determine them if they are low, medium or high risk.
Employers who make genuine efforts to make payments on time and promptly correct errors will generally be considered low risk and will not be subject to compliance action until 30 June 2027.
Employers who fail to correct errors will be deemed high risk and face investigation.
Small businesses will be disproportionately impacted by the changes, particularly those currently using the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House which can no longer be used from 1 July 2026.
Recommendations for an easier transition
In response to the upcoming changes Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) assembled a submission of practical recommendations to help navigate the changes and improve employer’s ability to comply.
They include:
Give more adjustment time: Apply the ATO’s transitional compliance approach for two years or review after 1 year to give employers reasonable time to adjust.
Clarify payment deadlines: Clearly define when payments are considered ‘late’ and give employers enough time to correct issues before evaluating them as high or low risk.
Clearly explain penalties: Low-risk businesses must understand they may face SG penalties under certain circumstances.
Expand relief for rejected contributions and fund transfers: Employers may experience delays in super contribution processing due to events such as incorrectly rejected contributions, fund mergers and successor fund transfers. These issues shouldn’t immediately impact an employer’s risk rating.
Implement Nudge Messaging: Remind employers about SG payment timing using Single Touch Payroll (STP) and Member Account Transaction Service (MATS) data.
Use a ‘Tell-Us-Once’ approach: Avoid requiring employers to resubmit data already held by the ATO to streamlining compliance processes.