TITLE: Key Tax and Super Deadlines: TPAR, SGC and Payday Super Updates for Australian Businesses
As at Tuesday, 25 August 2026, Australian businesses have two immediate compliance checks before the end of the week:
- Lodge your 2025–26 Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR), or submit a non-lodgment advice, by 28 August 2026.
- If June-quarter super was late, lodge and pay the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) by 28 August 2026.
- Prepare your payroll process for Payday Super, which applies to qualifying earnings from 1 July 2026.
- Distinguish between enacted MIT capital-loss ordering rules and draft AMIT-related Tranche 2 measures.
This update applies across Australia, including businesses operating in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra, as well as international sellers with Australian entities, contractors, employees or investment structures.
ATO position today: no new media release identified
Our review of the ATO’s publicly available news and media pages did not identify a new ATO media release dated 25 August 2026.
The deadlines below are based on existing official ATO requirements and published guidance. The managed fund development now needs to be split accurately between enacted MIT loss-ordering rules and separate draft Tranche 2 measures that remain subject to consultation outcomes.
1. Lodge your 2025–26 TPAR by 28 August
Check contractor payments before Friday
Your business may need to lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report if it paid contractors for relevant services during the year ended 30 June 2026.
The main TPAR service categories are:
- Building and construction.
- Cleaning.
- Courier and road freight.
- Information technology.
- Security, investigation or surveillance.
For many businesses, the relevant services must represent a significant part of the business’s income. The ATO commonly refers to the 10% income threshold when determining whether the TPAR obligation applies.
This can affect digital businesses, agencies, software companies and growing SMEs that use IT contractors. It can also affect businesses that outsource courier, fulfilment, cleaning or security functions.
Payments must generally have been made during the 2025–26 financial year. An invoice that remained unpaid at 30 June may not belong in that year’s TPAR.
Submit a non-lodgment advice if no TPAR is required
If the ATO expects a TPAR but your business does not need to lodge one for 2025–26, submit a TPAR non-lodgment advice by 28 August 2026.
This may apply where:
- You did not pay contractors for reportable services.
- Reportable services were not a significant part of your business income.
- You stopped paying contractors and no longer expect to lodge TPARs in future years.
Submitting the advice helps close the reporting expectation and can reduce unnecessary ATO follow-up.
Use electronic lodgment only
The ATO no longer accepts paper TPAR lodgments. Submit the report electronically through:
- Online services for business.
- SBR-enabled accounting software.
- Online services for agents if your registered agent lodges for you.
A non-lodgment advice must also be submitted electronically through the appropriate ATO service.
Understand the new contractor pre-fill effect
For tax time 2026, TPAR information will be used to pre-fill income for contractors in the relevant industries.
This creates an important reconciliation point:
- Your business reports payments made to the contractor.
- The ATO uses the reported data for contractor pre-fill.
- The contractor checks the pre-filled amount against their own records.
Most TPAR data becomes available after businesses lodge their reports. Contractors who lodge tax returns in July or early August may not yet see all TPAR information. They must still check their own records and include all relevant income.
Accurate TPAR reporting helps reduce mismatches, amendments and possible refund repayment issues.
Official ATO sources: TPAR overview, lodge your TPAR, and TPAR non-lodgment advice.
2. Check June-quarter super before the 28 August SGC deadline
Separate the 28 July fund deadline from the 28 August SGC deadline
The June quarter covered 1 April to 30 June 2026. Ordinary super contributions for that quarter were required to reach employees’ super funds by 28 July 2026.
If the required super did not reach the fund by that date, you generally need to:
- Lodge a Superannuation Guarantee Charge statement – quarterly.
- Pay the SGC to the ATO by 28 August 2026.
The 28 August deadline is therefore not an extension for paying ordinary June-quarter super into the fund. It is the deadline for reporting and paying the charge where the original super payment deadline was missed.
Do not assume a late contribution fixes the June quarter
For the June 2026 quarter, the ATO has confirmed that the late payment offset is not available. A late contribution cannot simply be used to reduce the SGC in the usual way.
Contributions received on or after 29 July 2026 may instead be dealt with under the new Payday Super framework. Review the payment date, fund receipt date and employee earnings period carefully before finalising the SGC statement.
This is particularly important if payroll teams in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane processed payments close to the transition date, or if international payroll providers were involved.
3. Implement Payday Super from 1 July 2026
Calculate 12% of qualifying earnings
From 1 July 2026, Payday Super requires employers to calculate super at 12% of qualifying earnings.
Qualifying earnings can include:
- Ordinary time earnings.
- Commissions.
- Salary sacrifice contributions.
- Other amounts previously included in salary or wages for super guarantee purposes.
Super contributions must generally be received by the employee’s fund within seven business days of each payday.
The change requires more than a payroll rate update. You should also check:
- Payroll software settings.
- Pay-cycle dates.
- Super clearing-house processing times.
- Fund receipt confirmations.
- Single Touch Payroll reporting.
- Reconciliation between payroll, bank payments and super records.
A contribution leaving your bank account is not the same as a contribution being received by the employee’s fund. Build in processing time to avoid late payment exposure.
