Superannuation Guarantee is the minimum amount of superannuation employers pay on their employee’s ordinary time earnings. Superannuation Guarantee is the contribution an employer is required to make into their employee’s super fund on their behalf. The amount is a percentage of your gross salary or wages. The percentage is set by the Australian Government and changes over time.
As an employer you are encouraged to communicate that the Superannuation Guarantee rate is scheduled to increase to your employees, particularly where their employment package includes superannuation, as there will be implications for take home pay. If you do not pay the required rate of Superannuation Guarantee into your employees super account by the quarterly due date you will be at risk of paying a Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) to the ATO. This includes all the SG amounts owing to your employees, plus interest and an administration fee which can often become very expensive.
On 1 July 2023, the superannuation guarantee contribution rate increases from 10.5% to 11%. This is the minimum super amount you must pay all eligible employees from 1 July 2023. The SG percentage rate will continue increasing by 0.5% every year until it reaches 12% from 1 July 2025.
Please remember Your contributions for each employee are required to be paid on at least a quarterly basis:
| Quarter | Period | Due Date |
| 1 | 1 July – 30 September | 28 October (each year) |
| 2 | 1 October – 31 December | 28 January (each year) |
| 3 | 1 January – 31 March | 28 April (each year) |
| 4 | 1 April – 30 June | 28 July (each year) |
Most software provider packages will cater automatically for the increase in superannuation guarantee rate, however, we encourage you to check the first pay run for the new financial year, to make sure there isn’t any errors in the set up of your payroll data and that the rate is calculating correctly.
Furthermore, it is extremely important you meet the requirements of the quarterly due date for payment, as failure to do so incurs interest and admin penalties and the ATO has all data to match payment date with obligations via Single Touch Payroll (STP) Reporting. The ATO is undertaking a lot of audit activity in this area.
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