The super guarantee charge (SGC) is what the ATO bills you when super doesn’t reach your staff’s funds within 7 business days of payday. For paydays from 1 July 2026 the ATO works it out per payday, and on one missed week of a $9,000 pay run, paying and disclosing quickly keeps the extra cost to about $5 instead of about $475.
A voluntary disclosure lodged before the ATO assesses you can cut the administrative uplift, which is the ATO’s enforcement charge, to nothing if you meet the conditions.
Super on earnings paid up to 30 June 2026 still follows the old quarterly rules, so check the payday before choosing the fix.
What Should You Do First If Super Is Late?
For a payday from 1 July 2026 that hasn’t been assessed, pay the outstanding super to your employees’ funds now, even if you can only pay part.
The normal deadline is receipt by the fund within 7 business days after payday. A payment leaving your bank isn’t the same as reaching the fund.
- Pay the missed amount to the employees’ funds. Don’t hold back everything because you can’t cover the full bill: a partial payment still reduces the charge.
- Keep a record of the payday, affected employees, amount owing, what failed and when the funds received the correction.
- Then lodge a voluntary disclosure before the ATO assesses you, so the administrative uplift can come down.
- Fix the cause in payroll or payment processing, so the next pay run’s super goes through.
The ATO calls each payday a ‘QE day’, short for qualifying earnings day. On a weekly pay run, a super fault left for a quarter means several missed paydays, and the ATO assesses each one as its own charge.
For paydays from 1 July 2026, you don’t lodge the old super guarantee statement; the ATO calculates the charge and sends an assessment. A voluntary disclosure can only be lodged before you receive a notice of assessment. Count the disclosure period from payday, not the super deadline.
You can download and lodge a voluntary disclosure online or by mail using the ATO’s streamlined form for paydays from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. In the first year (paydays to 30 June 2027) the ATO says it won’t target low-risk employers who try to pay each payday and fix errors quickly, so your record of the fix matters.
When we take over a file, we often find super that went out late or not at all, and we have lodged super guarantee charge statements to fix it. The ATO takes referrals from employees about unpaid super and can tell current and former staff about a shortfall it finds.
If you find a missed payday, pay it and lodge the disclosure the same week. On a weekly pay run that’s the difference between a few dollars and a bill with a 40% uplift on it.
Our hospitality bookkeepers handle payroll and reconciliation every week, and our guide to payday super timing covers the deadline in detail.
What Is the Super Guarantee Charge Made Of?
The super guarantee charge has four parts: the final shortfall, notional earnings, administrative uplift and any choice loading.
- Final shortfall: super still unpaid when the ATO assesses the payday. Late contributions received before assessment reduce it.
- Notional earnings: an interest amount calculated at the general interest charge, or GIC, rate and compounded daily. It stops when a late contribution clears the shortfall or the day before assessment, whichever comes first.
- Administrative uplift: starts at 60% of the final shortfall plus notional earnings. Reductions depend on your assessment history and voluntary disclosure.
- Choice loading: 25% of contributions for a payday where you haven’t followed fund choice rules, capped at $1,200 per notice period. With casual turnover, check that every new starter’s super goes to the fund they nominated.
The uplift rates below depend on when you disclose and whether you’ve had an ATO-initiated assessment in the 2 years to the payday. Assessments under the pre-1 July 2026 quarterly rules don’t count towards that history test.
| Disclosure Lodged, Counted From Payday | No Relevant Assessment | Relevant Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Within 30 days | 0% | 20% |
| 31 to 60 days | 5% | 25% |
| 61 to 120 days | 10% | 30% |
| More than 120 days, before assessment | 25% | 45% |
| Not lodged before assessment | 40% | 60% |
How Much Can One Missed Pay Run Cost?
A missed week of super ($1,080) costs about $5 extra if you fix it promptly, or about $475 extra if the ATO assesses it after 90 days of notional earnings, counted from the day after the 7 business day deadline.
A cafe with $9,000 in qualifying earnings on its weekly pay run, mostly casuals, misses one week’s super. That one missed batch is one payday’s charge.
Both paths use the Oct to Dec 2026 GIC rate, assume no choice loading and assume no relevant ATO-initiated assessment in the previous 2 years. The fast path includes a voluntary disclosure within 30 days of payday.
| What | Fixed Within a Fortnight of the Deadline | Left Until the ATO Assesses It |
|---|---|---|
| Super owed: 12% of $9,000 | $1,080, received by the funds 14 days after the deadline | $1,080, never paid |
| Final shortfall at assessment | $0, because the late contribution counts | $1,080 |
| Notional earnings (GIC of 0.03153425% a day, compounded, from the day after the deadline) | About $4.78 (14 days) | About $31.09 (90 days, to the day before assessment) |
| Administrative uplift | 0% with timely disclosure: $0 | 40% without disclosure: $444.43 |
| Super guarantee charge | About $4.78 | $1,555.52 |
Either way the $1,080 reaches your staff. Waiting adds about $475 instead of $5, and almost all of that is the 40% uplift a disclosure would have removed.
What Happens After the ATO Assesses You?
Once assessed, you pay the super guarantee charge to the ATO, not the employees’ funds, and it’s due on the day of assessment.
After you pay, the ATO transfers the shortfall and notional earnings to the employees’ super accounts. GIC accrues while the assessed charge remains unpaid.
- Unpaid 28 days after assessment: the ATO issues a Notice to Pay.
- Still unpaid 28 days after that notice: a 25% late payment penalty applies to the outstanding charge, adding $388.88 to the cafe’s bill above.
- The penalty rises to 50% if you’ve been liable for the same penalty in the previous 24 months.
You can ask the ATO for a payment plan after assessment.
If you can find the money, pay an assessed charge in full before the Notice to Pay deadline runs out, because a payment plan won’t stop the 25% penalty and the ATO can’t remit it.
If you’re a client, our ATO debt help covers dealing with the ATO as your registered tax agent and negotiating the payment plan, at no extra cost.
Can a Company Director Be Personally Liable?
Yes. A director can become personally liable for a company’s unpaid SGC, and the ATO can recover the penalty 21 days after issuing a director penalty notice.
That notice is different from a Notice to Pay. If one arrives, get it reviewed that day; our article on director penalty notices for venue owners explains the next steps.
Is the Super Guarantee Charge Tax Deductible?
SGC paid for paydays from 1 July 2026 is deductible, including all four components, but old quarterly SGC and charges for paying an assessment late aren’t.
- Code new payday SGC as deductible, all four parts: the final shortfall, notional earnings, administrative uplift and choice loading.
- Code GIC accruing on unpaid SGC and any late payment penalty as non-deductible.
- Keep SGC relating to quarterly periods before 1 July 2026 separate and code it as non-deductible.
Notional earnings inside a new payday assessment are deductible even though the ATO works them out at the GIC rate. GIC the ATO adds because you paid the assessment late isn’t. In Xero, give the deductible SGC and the non-deductible GIC and penalties their own accounts, so nobody is untangling one ‘ATO’ line at tax time.
What If the Unpaid Super Relates to Wages Before July 2026?
For earnings paid up to 30 June 2026, the old quarterly rules still apply: you must lodge an SGC statement and pay the charge, which isn’t deductible.
The quarterly charge is bigger than the super you missed, because it adds interest and a fee:
- The super shortfall calculated on salary and wages, including overtime.
- Nominal interest of 10% a year, running from the start of the relevant quarter.
- An administration fee of $20 per employee, per quarter.
- Any applicable choice liability, capped at $500.
Nominal interest runs until the later of the SGC due date or the date you lodge the statement. It cannot be reduced or waived, so waiting to lodge can make an old quarter more expensive.
The statement and SGC payment are due one calendar month after the original super due date. For the April to June 2026 quarter, the original super deadline was 28 July and the SGC statement and payment deadline was 28 August.
Use the ATO’s quarterly SGC instructions to prepare and lodge the outstanding statement.
If your file has both old quarters and new missed paydays, split them before you calculate anything, because old quarters need a statement and aren’t deductible.
Key Takeaways
- For an unassessed payday from 1 July 2026, pay the missing super to employees’ funds promptly, even if you can only pay part.
- Lodge a voluntary disclosure the same week you pay the funds, before any assessment, and count the 30 days from payday, not the fund deadline.
- Pay an assessed charge to the ATO, and don’t assume a payment plan stops late payment penalties.
- Separate deductible new payday SGC from non-deductible GIC, late payment penalties and old quarterly SGC.
- Lodge SGC statements for missed old quarters, and act immediately if a director penalty notice arrives.
If you’d like help with fixing missed super and working out what you owe, you can reach us at (02) 9768 5922 or enquiries@getroger.com.au for a free, no-obligations chat.