2025–26 compliance results
We have released our latest annual statistical results for employer obligations relating to super guarantee (SG) compliance.
These results provide key statistics and analysis for SG employer obligations, including our compliance actions undertaken for the 2025–26 financial year.
You can download a printable version in portable document format: 2025–26 Super guarantee compliance snapshot (PDF, 800KB)This link will download a file.
These results do not include Payday Super statistics, as Payday Super commenced on 1 July 2026.
Highlights of the 2025–26 year
Highlights of the SG annual employer compliance results for the 2025–26 financial year are:
- Most employers are doing the right thing and meeting their super obligations without ATO intervention.
- For 2023–24, we estimate a net SG gap of 6.1% or $7.25 billion.
- There are approximately 945,600 employers employing 15 million workers eligible for super.
- Total super guarantee charge (SGC) liabilities raised of $2.22 billion for approximately 1.02 million unique employees. This amount includes ATO compliance actions, employer voluntary disclosures of unpaid super, penalties and $184 million interest.
- A total of $1.13 billion in SGC entitlements was distributed into the funds of approximately 909,000 employees. This amount includes SGC amounts collected in the 2025–26 financial year for the current and prior years.
- We interacted with 254,910 employers through reminders and prompts as well as targeted audit and review cases, raising $1.17 billion in SGC liabilities:
- We sent 145,030 proactive reminders to employers
- We sent 97,830 prompts to employers raising $467.3 million in SGC
- We completed approximately 12,050 SG audit and review cases raising $700.4 million in SGC.
- Employers made voluntary disclosures of unpaid super, resulting in around $619 million in SGC liabilities.
- Approximately 81,100 employers have an SGC collectable debt. 16% (approximately 13,000) of employers with an SGC collectable debt owe 60% of the total SGC collectable debt.
- $271 million of all SGC collectable debt is under a payment plan – representing approximately 10.3% of the total SGC collectable debt and involving approximately 9,100 employers.
- 18,410 firmer and legal actions were taken to address employers who had an SGC debt.
ATO actions
ATO actions for the year are made up of proactive action, compliance activity, debt collection and legal action.
|
ATO actions for unpaid super |
2025–26 |
|---|---|
|
Proactive reminders |
145,030 |
|
Prompts |
97,830 |
|
SGC raised from prompts |
$467.3 m |
|
Cases completed |
12,050 |
|
SGC raised from completed cases |
$700.4 m |
|
Penalties raised |
$248 m |
|
Type of action |
2025–26 |
|---|---|
|
Firmer actions (director penalty notices, departure prohibition orders, SGC directions to pay, business tax debt disclosures and garnishee notices issued) |
16,005 |
|
Legal actions |
2,405 |
|
Total firmer and legal actions |
18,410 |
Debt statistics
|
Statistics |
2025–26 |
|---|---|
|
SGC collectable debt that is part of a payment plan |
$271.0 m |
|
% of SGC collectable debt under a payment plan |
10.3% |
|
Employers with an SGC collectable debt |
81,100 |
The previous compliance snapshot results are available:
- 2024–25 compliance snapshot (PDF, 635KB)This link will download a file
- 2023–24 compliance snapshot (PDF, 1.2MB)This link will download a file
- 2022–23 compliance snapshot (PDF, 533KB)This link will download a file
- 2021–22 compliance snapshot (PDF, 602KB)This link will download a file
Due to changes in data sources and reporting methods, some statistics are not directly comparable.
Definitions
Definitions of terms we use when explaining our compliance activities and employer super guarantee obligations. All definitions and results are based on the super guarantee system up to 30 June 2026. From 1 July 2026, Payday super definitions apply.
- Super guarantee – Super guarantee (SG) is the minimum percentage amount of ordinary time earnings (OTE) employers must pay to avoid the super guarantee charge.
- Super guarantee charge – The super guarantee charge (SGC) applies when you don’t pay the minimum amount of SG for your eligible workers to the correct fund by the due date.
- Penalties – you are liable for Part 7 penalties (P7P) if you fail to provide a statement or information when requested during an audit or lodge your SGC statement late. The maximum penalty is 200% of the SGC.
- Super guarantee gap – this estimates the difference between the amount of SG paid, and what would have been paid if every employer met their SG obligations.
- Voluntary disclosure – a voluntary disclosure is used to inform us of a mistake you have made with your SG amounts. A voluntary disclosure provides an opportunity to correct your tax affairs before we intervene.
- Cases – refers to an audit or review interaction with an employer where it appears they may not have been compliant with their SG obligations.
- Prompts – an ATO prompt is a notification issued directly to an employer to advise they have missed (or are at risk of missing), an SG lodgment date, or haven't paid the right SG amounts for their employees.