Payday Super was first announced in the 2023-2024 Federal Budget as part of the Government’s Securing Australians’ Superannuation Package. In brief, the announcement provided that from 1 July 2026 employers will be required to pay their employees’ superannuation at the same time as salary and wages (rather than at the end of each quarter as is currently the case).
Payday Super is still not law (quite yet), but yesterday (9 October 2025) the following progress occurred with respect to the measure:
- The legislation to enable the Payday Super measure (the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025 and Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Bill 2025) were introduced into Parliament.
- To coincide with this, the ATO issued Draft Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2025/D5 (the Draft PCG) which details the compliance approach the ATO proposes to take for the first year of the Payday Super measure’s operation.
Some key points to note regarding the above include:
- If the bills pass through parliament and are enacted as introduced, the Payday Super measure will apply from 1 July 2026 as originally announced. Practically this means employers need to be ready to pay their employees’ superannuation on a Payday basis rather than a quarterly basis from 1 July 2026.
- During consultation on the Payday Super exposure draft, concerns were raised that proceeding with the 1 July 2026 commencement date would not give employers enough time to design and implement the necessary changes to their systems and processes. In the Draft PCG, the ATO describes the proposed compliance approach outlined in the guideline as being in recognition of these concerns.
- Similar to recently published ATO guidelines addressing their compliance approach in other areas, the Draft PCG outlines the requirements of three risk zones (low, medium, and high) and proposes a compliance approach based on which of those risk zones an employer falls within.
- The ATO invites comments on the Draft PCG, with submissions due by 7 November 2025.