Key takeaways
- •Super your business still owes for the April to June 2026 quarter can no longer go to your employees' super funds. It is now paid to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as super guarantee charge.
- •Under Payday Super, super for paydays from 1 July 2026 can still be paid to your employees' funds until the ATO assesses your business, and paying even part of it reduces the super guarantee charge.
- •The super guarantee charge for each missed payday adds interest on the unpaid super at the general interest charge rate, plus an administrative uplift of up to 60% that is lower if a voluntary disclosure is lodged sooner.
- •If an assessed super guarantee charge is not paid, the ATO issues a Notice to Pay. An amount still unpaid 28 days after that notice attracts a late payment penalty of 25% or 50%, which cannot be remitted.
- •Unpaid super guarantee charge can become a director's personal liability through a director penalty notice. Where the charge was reported late or never reported, the company paying it in full is the only way to remit the penalty.
- •A private loan from Secured Lending, from $250,000 and backed by property, gives your business the funds to pay every missed payday and its other ATO balances at once.
If you are behind on super, what you owe depends on which payday or quarter each unpaid amount belongs to. Super for paydays since 1 July 2026 can still be paid to your employees' funds until the ATO assesses you, and the sooner it is paid, the smaller the charge. Super still owed for the April to June 2026 quarter is now paid to the ATO as super guarantee charge.
If your business has fallen behind on super, we would be glad to help you catch up. When your business or a director owns property, a short-term private loan backed by that property is a good fit for this problem, because it can be in place before more paydays pass their due dates. We lend our own funds, we decide in hours and can settle within 24 hours, and a tax debt on its own is not a reason we decline. The loan, from $250,000, gives your business the funds to pay every missed payday and any ATO balance at once, and your business then repays us through a defined exit strategy, such as a refinance or a property sale.
Two sets of rules, one employer
The June 2026 quarter was the last paid under the quarterly rules. Every payday from 1 July 2026 falls under Payday Super, and the ATO's guide to managing super during the changeover sets out how the two overlap.
| Unpaid amount | Rules | Where the money goes now | Deadline and tax treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super for the April to June 2026 quarter | Quarterly super guarantee | To the ATO, as super guarantee charge, with a super guarantee charge statement | An employer who missed 28 July had to lodge the super guarantee charge statement and pay the super guarantee charge to the ATO by 28 August 2026. The late payment offset is not available, and quarterly super guarantee charge is not tax deductible |
| Super for each payday from 1 July 2026 | Payday Super | To your employees' super funds, until the ATO issues a notice of assessment. After that, to the ATO as super guarantee charge | Contributions are due in the funds within 7 business days after you pay your employees |
One June quarter rule is easy to miss. Under the changeover rules, a contribution a fund receives on or after 29 July 2026 "cannot be allocated to super guarantee obligations for the quarter ending 30 June 2026". The ATO allocates it to paydays from 1 July 2026 instead, so paying the old quarter's super to the funds now does not reduce the June quarter super guarantee charge.
For the rules in full, including qualifying earnings and how the 7 business days are counted, see our guide to the Payday Super 7-day deadline.
What each delay costs under Payday Super
For each payday, the ATO calculates the super guarantee charge from four components: the unpaid super for each employee, notional earnings on it, an administrative uplift amount, and a choice loading where super went to the wrong fund.
The unpaid super. Super paid late to the fund, before the ATO assesses, is deducted. The ATO's guide to a missed Payday Super contribution confirms that paying even part of the amount to the fund reduces the super guarantee charge you become liable to pay.
Notional earnings. This is interest on each employee's unpaid super at the general interest charge rate (11.51% a year for October to December 2026), compounded daily. It stops when a late contribution clears that employee's shortfall, or the day before the ATO assesses, whichever is earlier.
The administrative uplift. It starts at 60% of the unpaid super plus notional earnings. It falls by 20 percentage points if the ATO has not made its own super guarantee charge assessment against you in the 2 years up to the payday, and by up to 40 more if you lodge a voluntary disclosure statement before the ATO assesses. The ATO publishes the bands, counted from the payday:
| Voluntary disclosure lodged | Uplift, no ATO-initiated assessment in the past 2 years | Uplift, with one |
|---|---|---|
| Within 30 days | 0% | 20% |
| 31 to 60 days | 5% | 25% |
| 61 to 120 days | 10% | 30% |
| More than 120 days | 25% | 45% |
| Not lodged before assessment | 40% | 60% |
The ATO also sets out the order in which to act: "Unless we have already made an assessment, you should pay any outstanding amount of super guarantee to your employee's super fund before considering whether or not to lodge a voluntary disclosure statement." Whether and when to lodge the disclosure is a question for your accountant. Because the bands are counted from the payday, a disclosure lodged sooner gets a lower uplift.
The ATO's own example. An employer misses $120 of super for each of 30 employees on one payday and is assessed 50 days after the due date. She has had an earlier ATO-initiated assessment and lodged no voluntary disclosure, so the full 60% uplift applies, and she also owes a $30 choice loading. If she pays the 30 contributions 25 days late, before the assessment, the ATO puts her maximum charge at $69.58. If she does not pay them, it is $5,869.44. Most of the difference is the $3,600 of unpaid super, and an uplift of $2,189.79 instead of $14.84.
After an assessment. Once the ATO assesses, the charge is due and payable on the day the assessment is made. Under the ATO's rules on an unpaid super guarantee charge, a charge not paid within 28 days leads to a Notice to Pay. If the amount in that notice is not paid within a further 28 days, a late payment penalty applies: 25% of the outstanding amount, or 50% if you have had the same penalty in the previous 24 months. The late payment penalty cannot be remitted, and a payment plan does not stop it being imposed.
The first-year approach does not remove the charge
For the first year of Payday Super, 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, the ATO has said it will not review employers who are paying their employees' super for each payday and fixing errors quickly. That decides which employers the ATO reviews. The super guarantee charge is still calculated and assessed under the law.
The ATO's guide to compliance in the first year of Payday Super sorts employers who miss super into three risk zones:
- •Low risk: the employer tried to pay on time, the payment arrived late, and the employer fixed it promptly.
- •Medium risk: the ATO's test is that an employer "will generally be considered medium risk if they do not meet the low-risk criteria but have rectified any unpaid super guarantee within 28 days after the end of the quarter in which the qualifying earnings were paid."
- •High risk: super that is still unpaid after those 28 days. The ATO treats these cases as its highest priority for compliance action.
By our count, 28 days after the end of the quarter is Wednesday 28 October 2026 for paydays from 1 July to 30 September 2026, and Thursday 28 January 2027 for paydays from 1 October to 31 December 2026. In one of the ATO's scenarios, an employer who missed the first 10 fortnightly super guarantee payments of the year is rated medium risk if the super is paid within 28 days after the end of the quarter.
Directors and personal liability
Unpaid super guarantee charge is one of the company debts the ATO can recover from directors personally through a director penalty notice, alongside pay as you go withholding and goods and services tax. Under the ATO's director penalty rules, where super guarantee charge was reported after the super guarantee charge due date or never reported, the only way to have the director penalty remitted is for the company to pay its liability in full. For the June 2026 quarter, the super guarantee charge statement was due on 28 August 2026. Where paying the company debt in full is the only way to remit a director penalty, the loan gives the business the funds to do it.
How a private loan clears super arrears
The loan funds are paid to the business at settlement, and the business then pays:
- •the super for each missed payday to the employees' funds, where the ATO has not yet assessed it
- •any assessed super guarantee charge to the ATO, before the 28 days in a Notice to Pay run out and the late payment penalty applies
- •the June 2026 quarter super guarantee charge to the ATO
- •other ATO balances, such as business activity statement debts and pay as you go withholding
One loan can cover super and other ATO debts together, as long as the total fits within 70% of the property value. Our urgent ATO debt loans cover the BAS and income tax side. Once the arrears are paid, the business's cash flow only has to meet the next payday's super, not old and new paydays at once.
| Loan feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Borrower | The business |
| Loan size | From $250,000, with larger loans assessed case by case |
| Interest rate | From 9.7% p.a. on our tax debt loans, from 11.95% p.a. on a second mortgage behind an existing loan |
| Term | 1 to 24 months, typically 3 to 6 months |
| Security | A first or second mortgage over residential, commercial or industrial property owned by the business, a director, or an existing company or trust |
| Maximum loan-to-value ratio | 70%. For a second mortgage, 70% combined with the existing first mortgage. A second property can be added as further security within the same 70% |
| Repayment | The business repays the loan to us through a defined exit strategy, such as a refinance or a property sale, and we need to see how and when before we approve the loan |
Our Payday Super loans page sets out the product in full.
We are a lender, and we do not give tax advice. Whether to lodge a voluntary disclosure, which super guarantee charge amounts are deductible, and director penalty remission are questions for your accountant or tax agent. Whether the company can pay its debts as they fall due is a question for an insolvency practitioner.
Frequently asked questions
I still owe the April to June 2026 quarter. Can I pay it to the fund now?
No. A contribution a fund receives on or after 29 July 2026 cannot be allocated to the June 2026 quarter. The June quarter amount is paid to the ATO as super guarantee charge, with a super guarantee charge statement, and a private loan can give the business the funds to pay it.
Am I personally liable as a director for unpaid super?
You can be. Unpaid super guarantee charge is one of the company debts covered by the director penalty regime, and where it was reported late or never reported, paying the company liability in full is the only way to remit the penalty.
I have received a super guarantee charge assessment. Will a payment plan stop the penalty?
No. A payment plan does not stop late payment penalties being imposed, and those penalties cannot be remitted and are not deductible. A private loan gives the business the funds to pay the assessed super guarantee charge in full instead.
Is the super guarantee charge tax deductible?
It depends on the period. The ATO treats super guarantee charge for paydays from 1 July 2026 as deductible, but general interest charge on a late super guarantee charge payment, the late payment penalty and super guarantee charge for quarters before 1 July 2026 are not. Your accountant can confirm how this applies to you.
Can I borrow against property to pay super arrears?
Yes. The loan is backed by a first or second mortgage over residential, commercial or industrial property owned by the business, a director, or an existing company or trust, on the terms in the table above.
How Secured Lending Can Help
We would be glad to help your business get back to paying one payday's super at a time. Our loan gives your business the funds to pay every missed payday, any assessed super guarantee charge and its other ATO balances at once, and your business then repays us through a defined exit, such as a refinance or a property sale.
A private loan suits this problem because it can be in place quickly and it is secured against property. In most cases we decide in hours. Once terms are agreed, we issue a letter of offer immediately, and we can settle within 24 hours. We lend our own funds and our in-house team values the property. A tax debt listed with a credit reporting bureau is not, on its own, a reason we decline, and one loan can cover super guarantee charge together with income tax and activity statement debts.
We provide secured loans backed by real property. If you would like us to look at your situation, it helps to have these to hand:
- •The unpaid super by payday since 1 July 2026, from your payroll report or Single Touch Payroll records.
- •Any balance still owed for the April to June 2026 quarter.
- •Any super guarantee charge notice of assessment or Notice to Pay, with its date.
- •Other ATO balances, such as BAS and pay as you go withholding.
- •The address of the property that would back the loan, its estimated value and any existing loan balance.
- •How your business plans to repay the loan.
If wages for the coming payday also need funding, our payroll loans cover wages and super together. You are welcome to call us on 1300 795 175 to talk it through, or send the details through and we will come back to you. In most cases, we can tell you within hours whether we can help.
