Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025 (57 of 2025)

Schedule 1   Amendments

Part 1   Amendment of the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992

Division 1   Main amendments

Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992

11   After section 10

Insert:

10A Interpretation: expressions relating to qualifying earnings

Meaning of qualifying earnings

(1) A person's qualifying earnings are amounts covered by one or more of the following paragraphs:

(a) the person's ordinary time earnings;

(b) all commissions payable to the person;

(c) all payments for the performance of the person's duties as a member of the executive body (whether described as the board of directors or otherwise) of a body corporate;

(d) all payments under a contract referred to in subsection 12(3) that are in respect of the person's labour under the contract;

(e) all remuneration of the person as a member of the Parliament of the Commonwealth or a State or the Legislative Assembly of a Territory;

(f) all payments to the person for work referred to in subsection 12(8);

(g) all remuneration of the person in circumstances referred to in subsection 12(9) or (10);

(h) if under an arrangement the person agreed for:

(i) a contribution to be made to a complying superannuation fund or an RSA for the benefit of the person by the person's employer; and

(ii) in return, for the reduction (including to nil) of one or more amounts of a kind described in paragraphs (a) to (g) of this subsection but not in subsection (3) of this section;

an amount equal to the total of those reductions.

Note: For paragraph (h), reductions are not counted if they are of amounts excluded by subsection (3) from being qualifying earnings.

(2) To the extent that an amount is covered by more than one paragraph of subsection (1), the amount is counted only once.

Exclusions

(3) However, a person's qualifying earnings do not include any of the following:

(a) a payment of an amount that represents the reversal of all or part of a sacrificed contribution;

(b) earnings or remuneration of, or payments to, the person to the extent that:

(i) the person is an employee of a kind prescribed by the regulations; or

(ii) the earnings, remuneration or payments are for work done of a kind prescribed by the regulations; or

(iii) the earnings, remuneration or payments are otherwise of a kind prescribed by the regulations.

Meaning of payment of qualifying earnings to or for an employee

(4) A payment of qualifying earnings to or for an employee by an employer means:

(a) a payment of qualifying earnings to the employee by or on behalf of the employer; or

(b) for qualifying earnings described by paragraph (1)(h) - the reductions described in that paragraph made in return for the making of the sacrificed contribution for the benefit of the employee.

Meaning of maximum contributions base

(5) The maximum contributions base , for a payment of qualifying earnings to or for an employee, is the following amount (rounded down to the nearest multiple of $10):

where:

charge percentage has the same meaning as in subsection 17A(2).

concessional contributions cap is the basic concessional contributions cap (within the meaning of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997) for the financial year in which the payment is made.

(6) For the purposes of this Act (other than this section), if an employer's payment of qualifying earnings to or for an employee during a financial year results in the employee's total qualifying earnings:

(a) during the financial year; and

(b) in relation to the employer;

exceeding the maximum contributions base, then treat the amount of that payment as if it were equal to:

(c) if that payment caused that total to exceed that base - so much of that payment as does not include the excess; or

(d) if an earlier payment had already caused that total to exceed that base - nil.