Super used to be a quarterly bill. Since 1 July it goes out with every pay run, and it has to land in your staff’s super funds within 7 business days of payday.
We think that is good news for most venues. The old quarterly super bill usually landed in the same month as BAS. Now super is just part of what a week of wages costs, which is what it always was.
The catch: late super is now charged for every payday, so you can fall behind within a week.
Super now leaves every week
Take a venue paying $7,200 a week in ordinary wages, casual loading and weekend penalties. Super is 12% of that.
- Before July: about $11,200, due 28 days after the end of each quarter
- Now: $864, out with every pay run
Same money over a year. It just never stacks up. If your account runs close to the line on payday, plan for that $864 going out the same day as the wages, because it can hit your cash flow.
Super is on the same pay lines as before, except overtime
The 12% is now worked out on qualifying earnings. For most venues that comes out the same as before:
- Ordinary hours: super
- Casual loading: super
- Weekend and public holiday penalty rates: super
- Overtime: no super, as long as the award clearly sets ordinary hours and your payroll keeps overtime separate
- Paying someone back for milk they bought: no super
- A staff member under 18 who works 30 hours or less that week: no super guarantee
If your payroll lumps overtime in with ordinary hours, the ATO treats all of it as ordinary hours and you pay super on the lot.
Where venues get caught
- They paid super through the ATO’s clearing house. It closed on 1 July. Paying from your payroll software is the simplest replacement, because super goes out with the pay run.
- They pay on day 7. Super only counts as paid when it reaches the fund, not when it leaves your account. Pay it with the wages and you leave time for a slow clearing house or a rejected payment.
- A new starter’s fund details are wrong. Their first contribution gets 20 business days, so get the details on their first shift. If the fund sends the money back, it hasn’t been paid.
If super has already gone out late
The ATO now works out a super guarantee charge for every missed payday: the super itself, interest that compounds daily, and an administrative uplift of up to 60% of the missed super. On one missed $864 week, that uplift alone can be about $518 before any interest.
Before July we lodged super guarantee charge statements for venues that came to us with unpaid super. Now the ATO works the charge out itself, so two things matter:
- Pay the fund as soon as you notice, before the ATO assesses you. That reduces the charge.
- For 2026-27 the ATO has said it won’t review employers who are paying super for each payday and fixing errors quickly.
What we do
If you’re not sure where you stand, check the date each fund received the money against each payday since July. It’s one of the first things we check when we take over a venue’s payroll.