Employer obligations

Super obligations for employers

Employers have an obligation to pay superannuation guarantee (SG) for their employees.

Upcoming Changes

Payday Super – Expected to commence 1 July 2026

From 1 July 2026 the government proposed to align the payment frequency for Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions with salaries and wages.

Currently, employers are only required to pay their employees’ SG on a quarterly basis. By increasing the payment frequency of superannuation to align with the payment of salary and wages, this will ensure employees have greater visibility over whether their super contributions have been paid.

SG contributions must be paid into your employee’s superannuation fund within 7 days of their salary or wages being paid. Missing this deadline will result in SG charges and additional penalties.

The ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House will retire from 1 July 2026. If any of your employees are already with NESS Super, we will provide the Clearing House free of charge. Get in touch and we’ll assist in making this a smooth transition for your business.

The Government is still designing the final details of this legislation through 2024. As always, we’ll keep you informed with any new updates as they come through, with more details expected in the next Federal Budget in May 2025.

SG Contribution Rate to increase to 12% from July 2025

The superannuation guarantee (SG) contribution rate is increasing to 12% from 1 July 2025.

How much super to pay for your employees

Employees aged 18 years or older

Generally, employers are to pay super contribution to their Employee’s super fund at least each quarter for an amount of SG Rate, currently 11.5% multiplied by the employee’s ordinary time earnings (OTE).

Employers are only required to pay SG contributions up to the maximum super contribution base. If an individual earns above the base, employers are not required to pay SG contributions on earnings over the base. The maximum super contribution base is indexed each year in line with average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE).  The maximum contribution base per quarter for the 2023/25 financial year is $65,070.

Employee aged under 18 years

If your employee is under 18 or is a private or domestic worker, such as a nanny, they must also work more than 30 hours per week to qualify. For example, you will have to pay them super on top of their wages for each week that the employee has worked more than 30 hours.

When to pay super

The SG contributions must be paid to the super fund within 28 days after the end of each quarter, see table below. You can generally claim a tax deduction for super contributions that you pay on time. If your SG contributions are late, you must lodge a Superannuation guarantee charge statement and pay the superannuation guarantee charge (SGC) to the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

Table 1 – SG Due Dates

If you deduct super contributions from an employee’s salary or wages, such as salary sacrifice or personal after-tax contributions, the amount deducted must be paid to the super fund or paid to an approved clearing house before the end of the 28‑day period beginning immediately after the end of the month in which the deduction was made.

Table 2 – Salary sacrifice remittance example

An employer deducts $1,000 from Betty’s pay on 10 June as a salary sacrifice contribution.

The employer must either pay the $1,000 directly to Betty’s super fund or via an approved clearing house before 28 July.

Tax file number and Pay slips

Employers must provide the employee’s Tax File Number (TFN) to the employee’s super fund within 14 days of receiving the Tax File Number declaration or when you make the first payment to the fund receiving the TFN.

Details of any super contributions must be included in your employee’s pay slip, including:

• the amount of contributions made during the pay period (or the amount of contributions that need to be made)
• the name, or the name and number, of the superannuation fund the contributions were made to.

Record keeping

Employers must keep records for five years showing:

• the amount of super you’ve paid for each employee
• any documents you use to help calculate entitlements that you offered your eligible employees a choice of super fund.
• This applies even if you use a clearing house facility to pay contributions.

Stapling

If you have new employees start and they don’t choose a super fund, you may have an extra step to take to comply with choice of fund rules. You may need to request their ‘stapled super fund’ details from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

When a new employee starts, you can follow the following simple steps:

Step 1

• If your new employee has chosen a super fund, pay the SG contributions to the chosen super fund.
• Keep a record of your employee’s request to pay to their chosen super fund.
• No further action required.

Step 2

• If your new employee has NOT chosen a super fund, request the stapled fund details from the ATO.
• Pay the SG contributions to the stapled fund.

Step 3

• If your new employee does not have a stapled fund, or has not chosen a super fund, you may pay the SG contributions to the default.
• Employers must follow these steps in this order, otherwise the employer may be required to pay the choice shortfall penalty.