This is the biggest change to Australian payroll administration in years, and it is not a reporting change — it is a cash-flow change. If you have been paying super quarterly and holding the money in the meantime, that is over.
The rule
For paydays on or after 1 July 2026, a super contribution is on time if the employee's fund has received it — with the information the fund needs to allocate it to the right member — within 7 business days after the day the employee was paid. The payday itself counts as day zero.
"Business day" here has a specific and slightly surprising definition: any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, or a day that is a public holiday for the whole of any Australian state or territory. A state-wide holiday in Western Australia is not a business day for an employer in Sydney. Holidays that cover only part of a state — a regional show day, for instance — remain business days.
What changes, side by side
| Paydays before 1 July 2026 | Paydays from 1 July 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline | 28th of the month after the quarter ends | 7 business days after each payday |
| Quarterly dates | Q1 Jul–Sep: 28 Oct · Q2 Oct–Dec: 28 Jan · Q3 Jan–Mar: 28 Apr · Q4 Apr–Jun: 28 Jul | No longer applies |
| Payment frequency | Up to 4 times a year | Every pay run |
| Cash held between | Up to about 4 months of super | About a week |
Note that the old quarterly super deadline of 28 January is a different date from the December-quarter BAS deadline of 28 February. People confuse those two constantly. Under Payday Super the super date disappears entirely; the BAS dates are unaffected. See BAS explained.
The cash-flow consequence nobody mentions
Under the quarterly regime, an employer with a $40,000 monthly wage bill was effectively holding roughly $4,800 of super a month, and up to about $14,000 by the end of a quarter, before paying it out. That money sat in the business account. Some businesses were using it as working capital, whether they framed it that way or not.
From 1 July 2026 it leaves within the week. In the transition period there is a one-off squeeze: you may be paying the final quarterly amount and the first weekly amounts in the same month.
How much super, at what rate
The super guarantee rate has been 12% of ordinary time earnings since 1 July 2025. That was the final scheduled increase — the rate is not legislated to rise further.
There is a ceiling. The maximum contribution base for the 2025–26 financial year is $62,500 per quarter of earnings, which caps compulsory super at $7,500 per quarter, or $30,000 a year — deliberately aligned with the concessional contributions cap. Earnings above the base do not attract compulsory super.
What to actually do before 1 July 2026
Payday Super readiness
- Confirm your payroll software will calculate and schedule super per pay run, not per quarter.
- Check how your contributions are transmitted — clearing house, direct to fund, or through your software — and find out that channel's real end-to-end time.
- Audit your employee fund details now. A wrong USI or member number is a contribution that bounces, and a bounced contribution is a late contribution.
- Recalculate your working capital on the assumption that super leaves weekly or fortnightly.
- Work out the transition-month overlap between your last quarterly payment and your first payday payments.
- Diarise the first few deadlines manually so you see the 7-business-day arithmetic play out before you rely on it.
- Tell your bookkeeper or accountant you have done all of the above, so nobody is planning for the old regime.
What happens if you are late
Late super has never been a small matter. Under the existing regime an employer who misses the deadline has to lodge a superannuation guarantee charge statement, and the charge is not tax-deductible — which makes a late payment materially more expensive than an on-time one, on top of interest and an administration component.
Payday Super is accompanied by a redesigned charge intended to make lateness more visible and more costly. Check the current ATO guidance for the exact amounts before relying on any specific figure, including from us — this is one place where a number from a blog post is worse than no number.
Common questions
Sources
Every rate, threshold and due date in this guide was checked against the pages below on the dates shown. Tax rules change — verify against the ATO before you rely on anything here, and get advice for your own situation.
- Payment deadlines for Payday Super — checked 2026-09-27
- Super guarantee (rates and thresholds) — checked 2026-09-27
- How much super to pay — checked 2026-09-27