How to pay
Super guarantee contributions are payments employers must make to their employees' complying funds or retirement savings accounts to avoid the super guarantee charge.
Pay employee super guarantee contributions electronically to either a:
- complying super fund – a fund that meets specific requirements and obligations under super law
- retirement savings account (RSA) – an account that provides a low-cost and low-risk savings strategy for retirement.
Report payments electronically through:
You must ensure the fund or RSA meets rules on:
For periods prior to 1 July 2026 you must pay super guarantee contributions by the quarterly due dates – 28 days after the end of each quarter – to avoid the super guarantee charge.
For periods starting on or after 1 July 2026 you must pay super guarantee contributions on payday. These contributions need to be received by your employee's super fund (with all the necessary information to allocate the contribution to the employee's member account) within 7 business days after paying your employee. There are some circumstances where you may have a longer time to make the super payment, such as if it is the first contribution for a new employee.
Award obligations
Some industrial awards require employers to pay super contributions to a specific super fund. Make sure you check if this affects your employees.
Personal super contributions
You can arrange to make post-tax super payments on behalf of your employees. These payments are personal super contributions.
You must make these contributions according to:
- the employee's terms of employment
- legal requirements
- industrial award conditions.
Your employee's personal super contributions don't count towards your super guarantee obligations.
Check for complying super funds
Super guarantee must be paid to a complying super fund. You can use Super Fund LookupExternal Link to check if a fund is compliant.
If they are not listed, you can get written confirmation from the fund's trustee.
Written confirmation must state that the fund:
- is a complying super fund
- intends to accept your super contributions
- will continue to meet the relevant legal requirements.
If the fund ends up being non-complying, written confirmation will protect you from penalties.
If you pay contributions to a non-complying super fund, the contributions:
- won't count towards meeting your super guarantee obligations
- won't be tax-deductible
- may incur a fringe benefits tax (FBT) liability.
Claim a tax deduction
Super guarantee contributions you make for your employees are tax deductible.
You can only claim the deduction in the financial year payments are made.
Missed or late payments may incur the super guarantee charge.
The super guarantee charge for periods before 1 July 2026 is not tax deductible.
Example: timing of super payments affects tax deduction claim year
Malia has 5 employees. She wants to claim a tax deduction for super guarantee contributions made in 2025–26.
To do this, Malia needs to pay super guarantee contributions to her employee's complying funds or RSAs by 30 June 2026 (end of the financial year).
However, Malia does not pay the super guarantee contributions for the fourth quarter of 2025–26 until 5 July 2026.
Therefore, Malia cannot claim these fourth quarter contributions as tax deductions until the next financial year (2026–27).
End of example