Chapter 1Introduction
1.1On 23 March 2026, the Senate referred the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Regulations 2026 (the regulations) to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee (the committee) for inquiry and report by 16 April 2026. The committee’s reporting date was subsequently extended to 1 May 2026 and then 11 May 2026.
1.2The committee’s report on the regulations contains two chapters:
Chapter 1—provides an overview of the regulations and the inquiry; and
Chapter 2—considers inquiry participants evidence on the regulations.
Overview
1.3In November 2025, the Parliament passed so-called payday super legislation to require employers to make superannuation contributions at the same time as they pay their employees’ salary or wages, and to impose a charge on an employer if there is any shortfall in superannuation contributions.
1.4The payday super legislation is scheduled to commence on 1 July 2026.
1.5In February 2026, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Regulations 2026 (the regulations) were registered. The regulations:
...amend the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Regulations 2018 (SGA Regulations) and the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994 (SIS Regulations) to support amendments made by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025.
1.6The regulations give effect to a number of elements of the Payday Superannuation regime:
consolidating existing exemptions and exclusions from the superannuation guarantee framework into the regulations;
prescribing the methods for reducing an employer’s administrative uplift.
prescribing the kinds of exceptional circumstances for which the Commissioner may issue a determination, which results in an extended due date for qualifying earnings (QE) days covered by the determination;
streamlining the requirement for superannuation trustees to allocate or refund contributions; and
giving effect to the updated scope of the benefit certificate provisions made in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025 (the Amending Act).
1.7Commenting on the regulations, the Hon Dr Daniel Mulino MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minster for Financial Services stated the regulations ‘mark another significant milestone’ in implementing the Australian Government’s payday super reforms. Further, Dr Mulino said the regulations:
These Regulations provide the details that support elements of the legislation and how it operates. This includes confirming kinds of payments that do not attract super, and the consequences of an employer voluntarily disclosing any missed payments.
The Regulations also provide the reduced 3‑day timeframe for superannuation funds to approve or reject contributions. This will ensure contributions are allocated to a member correctly in a shorter timeframe, including resolving any errors, benefiting employees through contributions landing in accounts earlier.
1.8The regulations are made under the:
the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (SGA Act);
the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993;
the Superannuation Act 1976; and
the Bankruptcy Act 1966.
Provisions
1.9The regulations contain one schedule, Superannuation guarantee reforms to address unpaid superannuation, with the following two parts:
Part 1—Main amendments; and
Part 2—Other amendments.
1.10The key provisions of the regulations are outlined below.
Part 1—Main amendments – Amendments to the SGA Regulations
1.11Part 1 seeks to amend the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Regulations 2018 in relation to:
administrative uplift amounts for superannuation guarantee shortfalls; and
amount of an employer’s administrative uplift amount.
1.12To better ensure employees are accurately compensated for lost earnings if their contributions are delayed, the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SCG) has been modified, including an administrative uplift amount (a penalty charge) in place of the previous flat administration fee.
Administrative uplift amounts for superannuation guarantee shortfalls
1.13The amendments increase financial penalties for late superannuation guarantee payments, introducing a scalable administrative uplift amount. This will be calculated at 60 per cent of the sum of the total of the employer’s individual final superannuation guarantee shortfalls and individual notional earnings components for a qualifying earnings day.
1.14To encourage employers to maintain a good compliance history and to make prompt disclosures if they have any superannuation guarantee shortfalls, the uplift may be reduced where:
no Commissioner-initiated assessment or estimate under 268-10 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (TAA) has been made for the employer in the past 24 months ending on the QE day, and/or
an employer lodges a voluntary disclosure statement for the QE day before the day an assessment is made for the employer and the QE day.
1.15Reductions to the uplift vary based on compliance history and timeliness of any voluntary disclosures and provide an incentive for employers to make a voluntary disclosure as early as possible:
Table 1.1Administrative uplift application
| |
Base position – superannuation guarantee shortfall identified | 60 per cent uplift applies |
No Commissioner-initiated SGC assessment initiated or estimate of superannuation guarantee charge liability during the previous 24 months (starting no earlier than 1 July 2026) | Reduction of uplift to 40 per cent
|
SGC assessment initiated in the previous 24 months | No reduction for compliance history |
Estimate revoked or reduced to nil on or before QE day or Commissioner-initiated SGC assessment is no longer in force | Reduction of uplift to 40 per cent available |
Voluntary disclosure statement lodged within 30 days of the QE day | Reduction of 40 percentage points
|
Voluntary disclosure statement lodged 31–60 days after the QE day | Reduction of 35 percentage points
|
Voluntary disclosure statement lodged 61–120 days after the QE day | Reduction of 30 percentage points
|
Voluntary disclosure statement lodged after 120 days from the QE day | Reduction of 15 percentage points
|
No voluntary disclosure | No reduction – uplift remains at 60 per cent |
Source: Explanatory Statement, pp. 6–7.
Exemptions and exclusions
1.16Exclusions for certain payments and employees from the superannuation guarantee framework have been consolidated in the regulations. The amendments do not change the substance of the existing exclusions however, the regulations update terminology to align with the updated framework.
1.17For example, the exemption from the superannuation guarantee for employees under 18 years of age and working part time, previously contained in the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992, has been included in the regulations with no change.
1.18The regulations allow for certain earnings or remuneration of, or payments to a kind of employee to be excluded from the calculation of that employee’s QE, such as payments during a period of parental leave.
1.19The regulations also prescribe exceptional circumstances (such as natural disasters and widespread outages of information and communication technology services) where employers may be granted additional time to make ‘on time’ contributions.
Benefit certificate provisions
1.20The regulations contain amendments giving effect to a tightened scope for benefit certificate provisions, which limits to defined benefit members of defined benefit superannuation (DBS) schemes, rather than applying to the whole of the scheme.
1.21Further it repeals provisions that enable benefit certificates to cover members of certain defined benefit schemes in which employers can draw from superannuation fund reserves or investment surpluses to satisfy their superannuation guarantee obligations for those members. These amendments preserve a small existing cohort of such arrangements to ensure employers can continue to satisfy their superannuation guarantee obligations this way.
1.22The regulations prescribe additional circumstances under which a person is to be treated as a defined benefits member for the purposes of the SGA Act.
Part 2—Other amendments
Amendments to the SIS Regulations
Streamlining the process to allocate or refund superannuation guarantee contributions and timeframes for validating information
1.23To reduce the administrative burden on employers and superannuation trustees, the regulations streamline the process, requiring superannuation trustees (except SMSFs) to allocate or refund contributions to the employer within three days of receipt where a fund receives a contribution for a member and the trustee is not able to allocate that contribution (for example, because it does not include sufficient information to identify the member) without needing to go back to the employer for additional information.
1.24The amendments remove previous distinctions between incomplete contribution information and contributions that can be allocated, reflecting the reality of how trustees are able to treat contributions.
1.25The regulations also update the timeframes for trustees to validate information from three business days to two business days. The same change has been made to information received by a trustee from the Commissioner.
Treatment of SMSFs
1.26The treatment of contributions for SMSFs remain unchanged under the regulation.
Allocation of allocation requirements for funds with less than five DBS members
1.27The amendments make minor changes to clarify that the allocation requirements only apply to a superannuation fund or a sub-fund with fewer than five DBS members (unless grandfathering arrangements for funds that previously had more than five DBS members apply).
1.28The regulations ensure contributions to a defined interest for a fund or sub-fund with more than five defined members will not have allocation requirements under the SIS Regulations.
Amendments to the Bankruptcy Regulation
1.29The amendments update the definition of:
‘relevant superannuation guarantee charge’ to ’charge percentage’; and
‘ordinary time earnings’ to ‘qualifying earnings’.
1.30They also insert definitions of ‘charge percentage’ and ‘qualifying earnings’ which have the same meaning as in the SGA Act.
1.31A transitional rule to deal with a contribution assessment period have also been inserted into the Bankruptcy Regulations.
Amendments to the CSS superannuation guarantee Regulations
1.32Consequential amendments to the CSS superannuation guarantee Regulations have been made to ensure that employer benefits under the Commonwealth Superannuation defined benefit Scheme (CSS) continue to meet the SGA Act requirements after the commencement of the Amending Act on 1 July 2026 by distinguishing between the treatment of contributions under the superannuation guarantee framework before the Amending Act commences, and the superannuation guarantee framework after it commences.
Commencement
1.33The regulations ‘commence at the same time as the Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Act 2025 commences’.
Consultation
1.34The Department of the Treasury released an exposure draft of the regulations for public consultation from 14 March 2025 to 11 April 2025, alongside consultation on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Bill 2025.
1.35The Explanatory Statement states that key feedback from superannuation industry stakeholders were incorporated into the regulations.
Human rights implications
1.36The Explanatory Statement states that the regulations do not engage any rights or freedoms that are recognised or declared in international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
1.37As such, the Explanatory Statement concludes that regulations ‘are compatible with human rights as they do not raise any human rights issues’.
Conduct of the inquiry
1.38The committee advertised the inquiry on its website and wrote to several stakeholders to invite them to make a submission by 9 April 2026.
1.39The committee received 8 submissions, as listed at Appendix 1.
Acknowledgments
1.40The committee thanks the organisations and individuals who contributed to the inquiry by making written submissions.