Superannuation March Quarter – Ensure you pay before 28th April

March Update

Your employee’s super contribution is only considered ‘paid’ on the date it’s received by the super fund. Not the date it’s received by the clearing house.

In light of this, we encourage employers to make their payments at least 5-7 working days before the due date.

Payments for the September quarter (Jan through to March) are due no later than April 28th.

With Single Touch Payroll and reporting from Super Funds, the ATO is now able to identify late superannuation payments and will contact employers in breach.

Significant penalties will apply.

Payment Dates

With the ATO amnesty on superannuation payments no longer in effect, it is absolutely critical that your superannuation payments for employees are made before the due date as it can take up to a week to process.

Superannuation due dates for the remainder of the year are:

Why does it matter if I am late?

There are significant penalties and interest payable, even if you are just late by 1-2 days. This includes;

• General Interest at 10%
• Superannuation payable on all earnings (not just Ordinary time)
• Administrations fees of $20 per person per quarter
• Penalties of up to 200% of total superannuation payable for your employees
• These penalties are not tax deductible

By Law, if your payment is made late or you pay the wrong amount, you must complete and lodge a superannuation guarantee charge statement and pay the SGC charge as soon as possible.

The ATO are showing no leniency in this area. With the ATO receiving payroll information from all employers via the single touch payroll reporting, they are able to data match against the super stream records to determine any incorrect amounts or payments not made.

Failure to identify & report a late or incorrect payment will result in additional penalties being applied with these backdated to the original due date. As one employer found out just recently;

A recent case reported by the ATO identified an employer who only paid a portion of their quarterly superannuation liability on time. They paid the balance a week later. The amount paid late was $140,000. As the employer failed to also lodge a SGC report to identify & declare this, fees and penalties were applied. The payment required to be made by the Employer was just over $550,000. This was nearly 4 times the original amount due for being 1 week late.

It is critical that superannuation payments are made before the due date and for the full amount due.

Like we do at Plus 1, employers can choose to make payments more regularly, such as monthly or fortnightly to help ease the cash flow burden and reduce the risk of not paying on time.

Regardless of how payments are made, ultimate responsibility for ensuring they are paid on time, accurately and into the correct superannuation funds, always rests with the employer.

The federal government announced that from 1st July 2026 employers will be required to pay employee super contributions to the complying funds on the same day that employees are paid their wages. So, now is an opportune time to get your processes and systems in place to accommodate for these changes.