Two things change for every Australian employer on 1 July 2026. The first is how frequently you pay superannuation — the quarterly model ends, and super becomes due on every payday. The second is how you pay it — the ATO's free Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closes permanently on the same date.
Neither is a proposal. Both are confirmed. And the interaction between them creates a timing trap for employers who leave their planning until June.
This guide covers both changes: what Payday Super actually requires, why the SBSCH is closing, and what you need to do before 1 July to stay compliant.
Quick answer: From 1 July 2026, super guarantee contributions must be paid on every payday — not quarterly. The SG rate stays at 12%. Simultaneously, the ATO's SBSCH closes for good: if you use it, you need a replacement before 1 July. Contributions must reach the employee's fund within 7 business days of payday. Late payment triggers an automated SG charge. The Q4 2025-26 quarterly payment (due 28 July 2026) can't go through the SBSCH — it closes before that date.
This is general information, not tax advice — see your registered tax agent for your specific situation.
What's Actually Changing on 1 July 2026
Two separate reforms, same date.
| Change | Current | From 1 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| SG payment timing | Quarterly (28 Oct, 28 Jan, 28 Apr, 28 Jul) | Every payday |
| SBSCH availability | Free, open to eligible small employers | Closed permanently |
| SG rate | 12% | 12% (no change — already at 12% from 1 July 2025) |
The SG rate is not changing. It reached 12% on 1 July 2025 and there are no further legislated increases on the current schedule per the ATO super guarantee rate table. The reforms are about timing and payment channel, not the rate.
Payday Super: How It Works
The Old Quarterly Model (What's Ending)
Under the current regime, SG contributions accumulate over a quarter and are due 28 days after quarter end. That gives employers up to three months of float between paying wages and paying super.
The 2025-26 quarterly due dates — the final year of the old model:
| Quarter | Period | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 1 Jul – 30 Sep 2025 | 28 October 2025 |
| Q2 | 1 Oct – 31 Dec 2025 | 28 January 2026 |
| Q3 | 1 Jan – 31 Mar 2026 | 28 April 2026 |
| Q4 | 1 Apr – 30 Jun 2026 | 28 July 2026 |
Q4 — the 28 July 2026 payment — is the final quarterly super payment under the old model. There's a timing issue with that payment and the SBSCH closure that catches employers out. Covered in the next section.
The New Payday Model (What's Starting)
From 1 July 2026, Payday Super requires SG contributions to be paid at the same time as wages. The rate stays at 12%, but the earnings base it applies to changes:
- Rate: 12% of qualifying earnings — the new payment base for super guarantee from 1 July 2026, which builds on the unchanged ordinary time earnings definition. For most employers the amount doesn't change: everything already counted as ordinary time earnings (ordinary hours pay, most allowances, bonuses, paid leave) carries over unchanged. There are two additions. First, commissions for work done entirely outside ordinary hours. Second, if you pay independent contractors mainly for their labour, or sportspeople, performers or film makers, their payments are qualifying earnings whether the work was done during or outside ordinary hours. Watch the trap on the first one: an identical bonus for the same out-of-hours work is not qualifying earnings — the label carries the result. Overtime and most termination payments (redundancy, ex-gratia) remain excluded — but a payment in lieu of notice is included
- Who's covered: all eligible employees — the $450/month income threshold was removed from 1 July 2022, so most employees are now entitled to SG regardless of earnings, with limited exceptions (including employees under 18 who work fewer than 30 hours per week)
What changes is the cadence: quarterly accumulation becomes per-payrun settlement. Weekly payroll means weekly super. Fortnightly payroll means fortnightly super.
The 7-Business-Day Rule
According to the ATO, contributions must be received by the employee's super fund within 7 business days of payday.
This is business days — not calendar days. A Friday payday means the fund must receive the contribution by the following Tuesday week, not the following Friday. Public holidays in the relevant state aren't counted either, which can stretch the window by a day in weeks containing a holiday but tightens it in others.
Note: the deadline is 7 business days to the fund — not 7 business days to your clearing house. Clearing houses take time to process. If yours needs 2 business days to settle, you need to initiate the transfer earlier in the window, not on day 6 or 7. That processing lag is your responsibility to manage, not the ATO's.
This also removes the quarterly cash buffer. Pay weekly, super leaves weekly. Pay fortnightly, super leaves fortnightly. There's no pooling window anymore.
SG Charge Penalties for Late Payment
Miss the 7-business-day window and you trigger a Super Guarantee Charge. Under Payday Super, the ATO will cross-reference real-time SuperStream contribution data against Single Touch Payroll records — there's no quarterly paper trail to hide behind. See the penalty regime section below for the full breakdown.
SBSCH Closure: What to Do If You've Been Using It
Why It's Closing
The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House was designed for the quarterly model — employers batch contributions once per quarter, submit them, done. Payday Super requires real-time settlement: contributions flowing through on every pay cycle, settling in employee accounts within 7 business days. The SBSCH wasn't built for that cadence and won't be rebuilt to handle it.
Closure date: 1 July 2026. Confirmed.
The Timing Trap: Q4 Super
Here's the issue that will catch employers who leave this until late June.
The final Q4 quarterly payment (for wages paid April–June 2026) is due 28 July 2026 under the old regime. The SBSCH closes 1 July 2026 — 27 days before that due date.
You cannot use the SBSCH to make the Q4 payment.
Your replacement clearing house needs to be set up and tested before 1 July, not just for Payday Super contributions going forward, but to handle the Q4 quarterly payment too.
Your Alternatives
| Option | Cost | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Beam (industry-run clearing house) | Direct employer sign-up available; commonly bundled into payroll software at no extra cost | Direct SBSCH replacement — handles multiple funds in one payment |
| Super fund employer portal | Free | Employers where all staff are in the same fund |
| Payroll software with super integration | Included in subscription | Employers already running an integrated payroll platform |
| Commercial clearing house (Macquarie Super, Paysuper) | Varies | Multi-fund handling with commercial support |
Beam is the closest like-for-like replacement for the SBSCH. It's run by the major industry super funds and processes contributions to multiple funds in a single payment — the same basic model as the SBSCH, built to handle Payday Super's settlement requirements. Employers can sign up to Beam directly through beamconnect.com.au, and Beam is also embedded into most Australian payroll platforms — often with no per-transaction fee for small employers when accessed through that channel. Confirm pricing with Beam directly or via your payroll provider, as terms vary.
If your payroll software already includes super integration, you may not need a separate clearing house. Confirm with your provider that their integration is Payday Super-ready before relying on it from July.
How to Move — Don't Wait Until June
Registering with a new clearing house takes longer than it should. There's employer verification, fund mapping, and a test contribution run you should complete before going live under live payroll conditions.
Recommended timeline:
- May 2026: Research your replacement, start Beam registration or confirm payroll software compatibility
- June 2026: Complete setup, confirm all employee fund details are current, run a test contribution
- By 30 June 2026: New channel live and tested — ready for Q4 super and Payday Super from day one
The employers who will have problems in July are the ones who started this in the last week of June.
What This Means for Sole Traders with No Employees
Payday Super doesn't directly affect you — there's no SG obligation for a sole trader to themselves.
If you're structured as a company and pay yourself as an employee, you are an employer for SG purposes and Payday Super applies.
If you're planning to hire your first employee in the 2026-27 financial year: your very first payroll run triggers Payday Super obligations. Have your super payment channel set up before you run payroll for the first time — not after.
What This Means for Employers with 1-5 Staff
This is where Payday Super has the most immediate operational impact on small businesses. The quarterly cash buffer disappears.
The cash flow shift:
Two employees with combined gross wages of $5,800 per fortnight. Under the old quarterly model: roughly $1,500 in super leaves your account once per quarter. Under Payday Super: $696 every fortnight (12% × $5,800), settled within 7 business days of each payrun.
The annual total is identical. But instead of one quarterly lump sum, it's 26 fortnightly transfers. If you've been using the quarterly super pool to smooth working capital, that stops on 1 July.
What needs to change in your process:
- Super becomes a step in every payroll run, not a quarterly reconciliation task
- You need a clearing house in place before July — the SBSCH won't be there
- Employee fund details need to be current — stale information causes payment failures, and payment failures mean late contributions under the new regime
- Track super owed per payrun, not per quarter
What doesn't change:
- The 12% rate itself (though from 1 July 2026 it applies to qualifying earnings, a base that builds on the unchanged ordinary time earnings definition — see above)
- Your obligation to contribute to the employee's nominated fund
- The requirement to process via SuperStream
Common Questions
Q: Does Payday Super affect contractors I pay voluntary super contributions to?
A: The SG definition of "employee" is broader than common law employment — it can include certain contractors who are paid wholly or principally for their labour. If a contractor falls within the SG definition, Payday Super applies to them. Get specific advice on any contractor arrangement you're unsure about. The line catches more businesses than they expect.
Q: What about salary sacrifice arrangements?
A: The employer's SG obligation — 12% of qualifying earnings — must still be met per payrun and is separate from salary sacrifice contributions. Salary sacrifice doesn't offset the employer SG obligation. Both need to be structured around your payrun cadence.
Q: What if my payroll software doesn't support Payday Super yet?
A: If your provider hasn't confirmed Payday Super compatibility, assume you have a problem to solve. Most major Australian payroll platforms have published Payday Super roadmaps. If yours hasn't, contact them directly. Don't discover the gap with a contribution already overdue.
Q: How long do I have to get super into the fund under Payday Super?
A: Contributions must be received in the employee's super account within 7 business days after payday, unless a longer period applies — for example, for new employees. Sending the payment is not the test; the fund receiving it is.
Q: Do I pay super on overtime?
A: No. Overtime payments, where ordinary hours of work are clearly identified, are excluded from both ordinary time earnings and qualifying earnings. The same applies to annual leave loading referable to a lost opportunity to work overtime, cashed-out time off in lieu, and on-call or call-back allowances for hours outside ordinary hours.
Q: Are commissions included in qualifying earnings?
A: Yes. There are two additions. First, commissions for work done entirely outside ordinary hours. Second, if you pay independent contractors mainly for their labour, or sportspeople, performers or film makers, their payments are qualifying earnings whether the work was done during or outside ordinary hours. Commission is included even where it is solely for work performed entirely outside ordinary hours — that type was previously outside ordinary time earnings. Watch the trap: an identical bonus for the same out-of-hours work is not included in either ordinary time earnings or qualifying earnings. The label carries the result: a commission is qualifying earnings whenever the work was done, but a bonus is qualifying earnings only if it relates to ordinary hours.
Q: Do I pay super on a redundancy payout?
A: Mostly no, with one important exception. Genuine redundancy payments, ex-gratia termination payments, severance, compensation for wrongful dismissal, and unused annual, long service, personal or carer's leave paid on termination are all excluded. Payment in lieu of notice is included, for all termination reasons. So on a $40,000 termination payment made up of $10,000 payment in lieu of notice, $25,000 genuine redundancy and $5,000 ex-gratia, only the $10,000 is qualifying earnings and the super guarantee is $1,200.
Q: I missed a super payment for the June 2026 quarter. What do I do?
A: That quarter fell under the old quarterly rules, not Payday Super — it was the last quarter that regime will ever apply to, and it still matters if you haven't dealt with it. The ATO's instruction was not to pay the shortfall to the fund: any contribution the fund receives on or after 29 July 2026 cannot be allocated to the June 2026 quarter; it is applied to your Payday Super amounts instead, even if you intended it for June — so paying the fund now doesn't reduce what you owed for the quarter, you'd just pay twice. What you needed to do instead was lodge a Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) statement with the ATO and pay the SGC by 28 August 2026. That date has now passed. If you haven't lodged and paid, you are overdue — the ATO's collection approach escalates the longer an SGC debt sits unaddressed, and the late payment offset was never available for this quarter. Get a registered tax or BAS agent on this immediately if it's still outstanding. Two things to brace for: the SGC shortfall is calculated on total salary and wages including overtime, not ordinary time earnings, so it is larger than the super you missed; and SGC for quarterly periods before 1 July 2026 is not tax deductible. This was a one-off, transitional obligation — the quarterly SGC statement regime does not apply to any period after 30 June 2026, and there is no equivalent "next due date" to watch for. For a missed payday from 1 July 2026 onward the position is different — there you pay the fund as soon as you can, you do not lodge a Super Guarantee Statement, and the ATO assesses the shortfall itself and issues a notice of assessment.
The Penalty Regime: What Happens If You Get It Wrong
Late super under Payday Super triggers a Super Guarantee Charge. The SGC exists under the current quarterly regime — Payday Super makes it more frequent and more automated.
Key facts:
Automated detection. The ATO will cross-reference SuperStream contribution data against STP payroll data in real time. A missed payday super contribution won't sit undetected for a quarter — it flags against the payroll record as soon as the 7-business-day window passes. See ATO Payday Super for the full enforcement framework.
The SGC is tax-deductible from 1 July 2026 — but it is still expensive. Under the old quarterly regime the SGC was not deductible. From 1 July 2026 that reversed: the super guarantee charge is tax deductible. What makes late super costly now is what the charge contains — interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge rate, plus an administrative uplift amount added on top. You also no longer lodge a Super Guarantee Statement: the ATO assesses the shortfall itself and issues a notice of assessment, though you can lodge a voluntary disclosure before that assessment issues to reduce the uplift.
Interest accrues from day one — and the regime gets harsher. Under the current quarterly model, nominal interest on unpaid SG runs at 10% per annum from the day after the contribution was due. Under Payday Super, the flat 10% nominal interest is replaced by a daily-compounding general interest charge (the ATO's GIC), accruing from the day after each missed payday. That's a materially tougher interest regime — verify the prevailing GIC rate on the ATO Payday Super page before applying it to a specific shortfall.
Director personal liability. Company directors can be held personally liable for unpaid SGC through director penalty notices. This isn't new — it exists under the current regime — but with real-time ATO data, the exposure surfaces faster.
No amnesty on the horizon. The 2019 SG amnesty allowed employers to voluntarily disclose historical shortfalls and pay them outside the SGC framework. That program is closed. There's no indication of a similar amnesty under Payday Super.
The practical risk management is straightforward: set up your payment channel before July, run your first Payday Super contribution clean, and treat super as a mandatory step in every payroll run from day one.
Action Checklist: The Next 6 Weeks
- Confirm your current super payment method — SBSCH, fund portal, or payroll software integration
- If using the SBSCH: register with a replacement — Beam (via your payroll software), your super fund's employer portal, or a commercial clearing house
- Confirm your payroll software is Payday Super-ready by 1 July — get written confirmation from your provider
- Ask all employees to verify their current super fund details — stale fund information causes payment failures
- Map your new payment process: which step in your payroll run initiates the super payment, and what is your clearing house's settlement time?
- Model the cash flow impact: recast your current quarterly super outflows as per-payrun amounts and check your working capital buffer
- Lodge Q3 super by 28 April if not already done (last quarterly payment that can use the SBSCH)
- Plan your Q4 payment (April–June 2026 wages, due 28 July 2026) through your new channel — the SBSCH is closed by then
- Run at least one test contribution through your new channel before 1 July — don't go live for the first time under live conditions
How Summed Fits
Summed calculates super on the wages you record for each pay period — 12% of the gross wages it works out from the shifts and hourly rates you enter, including casual loading and Saturday, Sunday and public holiday penalty rates, tracked against each payroll run. Those loadings and penalty rates are qualifying earnings, so that figure is a sound starting point. It is not the whole picture. Summed works only from hours actually rostered, so it does not capture paid leave — annual, personal and carer's, long service, or an RDO taken and paid — and it has no field for commissions, allowances, bonuses, directors' fees or salary-sacrifice amounts. Every one of those is qualifying earnings, and you need to add them yourself before you pay the fund. Treat the Summed figure as the shift-wages component of qualifying earnings, not the final number. On the Crew plan, you get a per-employee breakdown of gross wages and super owed per period.
What Summed doesn't do: process the super payment itself. Summed has no SuperStream integration and is not a clearing house. It's the calculation layer — you take the figure and push it through Beam, your fund portal, or your payroll software's super function.
If you're currently tracking staff wages in a spreadsheet and calculating super manually, Summed removes that manual step and gives you an audit trail by payrun.
This is general information, not tax advice. Super guarantee rules, SGC rates, and ATO administrative arrangements change. This article was written against ATO guidance as at 18 May 2026; the qualifying-earnings and super-guarantee-charge sections were corrected against current ATO guidance on 20 August 2026. Verify current rules at ato.gov.au and confirm your specific obligations with a registered tax agent or BAS agent before changing your payroll processes.