Payday Super began on 1 July 2026. It’s too early to find all the kinks but here are some of the traps that we’ve noticed so far:
Cash-flow pressure / transition planning
Businesses that previously relied on the quarterly payment window have felt the pinch where July amounts were paid weekly and the June quarter was due in July as well – effectively paying 4 months of super at the same time.
We pushed the businesses we work with to take up the changes earlier, and most have taken the change successfully but we’ve come across a few businesses that had a hit to cash flow.
Old payroll errors
The ATO’s Payday Super reconciliation relies on year to date information for calculating liability and the ATO acknowledges there will be situations where their records don’t match yours.
Trying to correct an older pay run can cause further issues by misaligning the super and these knock on effects need to be considered.
New starters not set up
New starters (or employees changing funds) have 20 business days before payment of their first eligible contribution, giving a little bit of extra time to process.
However, most businesses still don’t have a stapled fund set up, nor request details from the ATO in time to meet this commitment. Too often a late payment is a result of waiting for the employee to provide their details.
If an employee doesn’t give super details on their start date, start the ATO process immediately.
Extra complexity for late payment of the June quarter
Late payments of the June quarter aren’t eligible for the late payment offset. This means the amounts paid are instead applied against the earliest available payday super obligation and haven’t been applied to your June quarter super.
This is a little more complex than the usual Superannuation Guarantee form, and if you’ve paid your April 2026 – June 2026 late, we recommend reaching out to help manage the correction.
The ATO’s transition approach is not an amnesty
The ATO has adopted a risk-based compliance approach for the first year. Employers making genuine efforts and promptly correcting occasional errors are less likely to be a compliance focus.
If you do miss a payment, the ATO recommends paying as soon as possible as well as lodging a voluntary disclosure form to reduce penalties for late payment.
Note that the voluntary disclosure form needs to be made prior to the ATO issuing an automated late notice of assessment – make sure you’re staying on top of even your late super payments!
New penalties
Late paid super is now deductible. However the penalties have changed.
Previously, you paid interest on the missed contributions from the start of obligation quarter until the date the Superannuation Guarantee Charge form was lodged, plus a $20 administration fee per employee.
Now the ATO recognises when super has been paid, so paying as soon as possible reduces the cost to the business.
Further, the administration cost is now on the unpaid amount + notional earnings (essentially interest). If the super has been paid up, you are saving on the admin fee on the underlying super amount.
The administration fee is 60% of the unpaid amount + notional earnings, but lodging the voluntary disclosure can reduce this to 20% if lodged on time, or even to nil if good compliance history exists
Key takeaway
The key takeaway is to manage your super payments, review how your new processes are going and reach out if you notice anything wrong!