What you need to know about super payments
Pay the right amount at the right time to keep your employees’ super savings on track.
Who to pay super for?
You’re generally required to pay super for employees who are:
- employed on a full-time, part-time or casual basis (even if they’re only working in Australia temporarily)
- 18 and over
- under 18 but working more than 30 hours per week
You can use ATO eligibility tool to work out if your employee is eligible for super guarantee (SG) contributions.
How much you need to pay?
You must pay a minimum of 11.5% of your employees' ordinary-time earnings into a super fund for them, on top of their regular salary. This is called the super guarantee.
What are ordinary-time earnings?
The salary or wages you pay an employee for their usual hours of work before any tax is paid (also known as their gross salary). This includes over-award payments, bonuses, shift allowances, commissions, and most types of paid leave. Ordinary-time earnings don't include any overtime. Find out more at the ATO website.
Note: If you're a Tasmanian State Government employer, what's included as part of an employee's ordinary-time earnings is different. You should use the definition of salary as defined under the Public Sector Superannuation Reform Act 2016 (section 4).
Most employers need to pay SG contributions by the 28th of the month following the end of each quarter. You may need to pay more regularly depending on your employee's terms of employment or industrial award.
Financial year quarters Payment period ATO legislative due date SG statement lodgement and SG charge payment deadline.
Financial year quarters | Payment period | ATO legislative due date | SG statement lodgement and SG charge payment deadline |
Quarter 1 | 1 July to 30 September | 28 October | 28 November |
Quarter 2 | 1 October to 31 December | 28 January | 28 February |
Quarter 3 | 1 January to 31 March | 28 April | 28 May |
Quarter 4 | 1 April to 30 June | 28 July | 28 August |
1. Check if your employee is eligible to choose their own super fund
The relevant industrial award or agreement for your employee will determine whether they’re eligible to choose a super fund.
If you don’t know which award or industrial agreement applies to your employees, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website.
2. Give your employee a standard choice form
If your employee is eligible to choose a super fund, you need to give them a Standard choice form within 28 days from the date they start work with you.
Your employee can:
- complete and return the form with details of their chosen super fund or
- give you details of the super account they want their contributions paid into or
- do nothing, in which case you’ll need to pay their super into your default fund
3. Act on your employee's choice
If your employee gives you details of their super fund, and it meets the choice of fund rules, you have two months to start paying their super contributions into their chosen fund.
If your new employee doesn't choose an eligible fund, you must search ATO online services to see if your new employee has an existing super fund, known as a ‘stapled super fund’. If they do, you must pay SG contributions into that fund.
This step can only occur after your employee has commenced working for you and you've submitted a Tax file number declaration form or Single Touch Payroll pay event linking them to you.
If your employee doesn’t choose a fund and your search of ATO online services shows they don’t have an existing super fund, you pay SG contributions into your default MySuper fund.
Download the Standard choice form for your new employees
Under the government’s SuperStream legislation, you can only send data and make payments electronically, using approved options. You can’t pay by cheque or send contributions breakdowns by post or email.
There are many ATO-compliant options to enable you to make super contributions for your employees, such as using our clearing house solution, QuickSuper.1
If you’re unsure get in touch with your Employer Relationship Manger or call us on 1800 005 166.
Putting the right super info on payslips
Your employee payslips must include:
- the amount of contributions made during the pay period (or the amount of contributions that are due to be made)
- the name of the super fund that the contributions were paid into
If you have authorised contributions and paid by EFT through our clearing house, you can’t cancel the payment once it’s been submitted.
If you need help, give us a call on 1800 005 166.
How to claim a tax deduction
- Submit a notice of intent. You can do this:
a. in Member Online, select 'Contributions' and 'Claim tax deductions'
b. by completing the Notice of intent to claim or vary a deduction for personal super contributions form
c. by calling us on 1800 006 166
- Once you submit your claim, we’ll send you an acknowledgement that we’ve received your
intent to claim and confirm the amount.
You must receive this acknowledgement from us before claiming the deduction on your tax return.
- Submit your tax return. You’ll need to state the amount you want to claim as a tax deduction in the supplementary section of your tax return.