Check your obligations
Meeting your super guarantee payments as an employer means you’re contributing towards the financial future of your workers.
You must pay super guarantee on time, to the right fund and at the correct rate to avoid an extra tax called the super guarantee charge.
Super guarantee eligibility
Generally, all workers are eligible for super guarantee. There are additional rules for workers who are:
- under 18 years old
- domestic or private workers
- independent contractors
- international workers
- self-employed.
It's important to correctly classify your workers to avoid outstanding tax and super obligations. For more information see Work out if you have to pay super.
Check: pay super for the correct workers
Have you determined:
- each eligible worker that you have to pay super for, which may include independent contractors
- if you have workers overseas
- consider if you should apply for a certificate of coverage so you don't have to pay super in 2 countries.
Check: select the right super fund to pay your workers
Make sure you have offered your eligible workers a choice of super fund within 28 days of their start date. Have you:
- provided your workers with a Superannuation standard choice form
- this form allows your workers to tell you their choice of super fund
- requested your worker's stapled super fund details
- these can be requested and provided to your employee during the onboarding process while they consider their choice of fund
- they must be requested if they don't make a choice
- selected your default super fund if your worker doesn't have a stapled super fund and hasn't chosen a fund
- provided your worker's tax file number (TFN) to their super fund once selected
- understood how to pay super and checked you're paying to a complying fund or retirement savings account (RSA).
Pay and report electronically
You'll need to work out how much super to pay for your eligible workers. This includes knowing what payments count as qualifying earnings.
The current super guarantee rate is 12% of your eligible worker's qualifying earnings.
For Norfolk Island, the super guarantee rate is 11% for the 2026–27 financial year, increasing to 12% in 2027–28.
Check: pay and transfer data to your worker's super fund
Have you complied with SuperStream by making payments and providing data electronically, through either:
- a SuperStream compliant payroll system
- a commercial clearing house
- your super fund, if it offers this service.
Check: pay contributions on time
Have you:
- allowed enough time for the contribution to be processed
- your eligible employees' super funds must receive and be able to allocate your super guarantee contributions within 7 business days after payday (longer may apply in limited circumstances)
- processing times can vary
- if you use a commercial clearing house, make sure you allow time for your payments to reach your worker's super fund. Super payments are considered 'paid' on the date they're received (and can be allocated) by the fund, not the commercial clearing house
- provided all information the super funds need to be able to allocate each payment to the right employee.
Missed or late super payments
Missed or late super guarantee payments could mean you end up paying the super guarantee charge. This is more than you would have otherwise paid in super guarantee to your employee's super fund.
You can claim a tax deduction for any super guarantee charge that you pay for a period from 1 July 2026. However, you are not able to claim a tax deduction for any super guarantee charge that you pay for quarters ending prior to 1 July 2026.
Check: if you haven't paid on time
If you haven't paid on time for a period after 1 July 2026:
- you should continue to pay your late contributions to your employee's super fund unless we have sent you a notice of assessment for the period
- you can consider lodging a voluntary disclosure statement to reduce your super guarantee charge (if you haven't received a notice of assessment from us) – making late contributions to your employee's super fund before you lodge a voluntary disclosure statement will further reduce your super guarantee charge
- we will calculate your super guarantee charge and send you a notice of assessment
- you should pay the super guarantee charge to us. It is due and payable on the day we make the assessment (usually this is the day you receive the notice).
Note: For quarters ending prior to 1 July 2026, you must lodge a super guarantee statement to us. Use the Super guarantee statement instructions when completing this form. It's important to take the time to get this right to ensure we can accept your Super guarantee statement.
If you need help, you can contact us or a tax professional.
Record keeping requirements
You are required to keep records of super contributions you have made for each eligible worker for a minimum of 5 years. We recommend you retain these records for the entire time the worker is your employee. These records can be used as evidence of meeting your super guarantee payments.
Get your super payments right
We match data and can see if employers don't pay super guarantee correctly. We take non-compliance seriously.
Workers can also notify us of unpaid super. Don't wait for your workers to come to us. You are liable for the super guarantee charge for missed or late super payments.
Make sure you're regularly checking that you're up to date and meeting your super guarantee payments.
If you use a tax agent, you should also check in with them.