An employee’s fund must receive their superannuation (super) payments on or before the quarterly super due dates, including the compulsory Employer Superannuation known as the Superannuation Guarantee (SG)

Super must be paid to all eligible employees. To avoid the super guarantee charge (SGC), payments must be received by the employee’s fund on or before the quarterly super due dates.

Payments can be made at least 4 times a year. This applies from the day employees start working for you. Payment due dates occur quarterly.

Quarterly Superannuation Due Dates

When a super due date falls on a weekend or public holiday, the fund must receive your contribution on or before the next business day.

You can also make payments more frequently than quarterly, for example, fortnightly or monthly. If you do, ensure you pay your total super guarantee (SG) contribution for the quarter by the due date.

If you have missed the quarterly payment due date or made late super payments, you will need to lodge an SGC statement and pay the SGC to the ATO. The missed or late super payments are no longer tax deductible.

Clearing Houses

A clearing house distributes super contributions to your employees’ funds on your behalf.

SG payments made to a commercial clearing house before the SG due date may not reach the super fund until after the due date. Your employee’s super contribution is only considered ‘paid’ on the date the super fund receives it, not the date it’s received by the clearing house.

Note: It’s important that you leave enough time for your SG payments to reach the super fund and allow for their processing timeframes.

However, if you use the ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, payments may be considered ‘paid’ on the date they’re received.

Check the processing timeframes your clearing house requires to ensure your payments will be processed before the payment due dates.

Source: ATO – Super payment due dates