Video · 0:38

Paying super late now costs far more: how $50,000 becomes $74,000

0:38 · Posted 9 November 2026 on the HomeSec YouTube channel

Under payday super, super must reach the fund within 7 business days of every payday. Paid late and found by the ATO, $50,000 of super becomes a charge of about $74,000, with a 25% non-deductible penalty if the notice is ignored.

In short

Super is now due within 7 business days of every payday, measured by when the fund receives it, not when you send it.
Found late by the ATO, unpaid super becomes the superannuation guarantee charge: the super, interest compounding daily, and an uplift of up to 60%.
On $50,000, an assessment about six months late for a first-time employer comes to roughly $74,000.
Ignore the ATO's notice and a 25% penalty is added. It is not tax deductible and cannot be waived.

How the video's $74,000 is worked out

The example is a business that falls $50,000 behind on super and does nothing until the ATO picks it up, about six months after the money was due. That is not an unusual timeline: Single Touch Payroll tells the ATO what super was promised, and funds report what actually arrived, so the gap shows up on its own.

The unpaid super: $50,000. The starting point, and the part that would have been an ordinary business expense if it had been paid on time.
Notional earnings: about $3,000. Interest at the ATO's general interest charge rate, compounding daily from the due date, standing in for what the employees' funds would have earned.
Administrative uplift: about $21,000. For an employer's first assessment the ATO adds 40% of the super plus the notional earnings. A repeat employer pays 60%.
Total: roughly $74,000. About $24,000, or 48%, more than the super owed, before any choice loading if employees' chosen funds were ignored.

What happens if the ATO's notice is ignored

Once the charge is assessed, the ATO issues a Notice to Pay. Leave it unpaid for 28 days and a late payment penalty of 25% of the unpaid charge is added, 50% for an employer who has had one before. Interest keeps running on the balance as well. In the video's example that takes the extra cost to about $44,000, nearly 88% of the original $50,000, and the penalty and the interest on it cannot be claimed as a deduction. The Commissioner has no power to remit the late payment penalty, so there is no letter that makes it go away.

Why directors should not wait

Unpaid super is one of the debts the ATO can recover from directors personally through a director penalty notice. The timing that matters most is 60 days from the payday the super was due for: if the employer has not disclosed the shortfall by then, the director penalty can be a lockdown penalty, which stays with the director even if the company goes into administration or liquidation. The video's line about directors is short because the point is simple: this debt follows you home.

Where borrowing comes in

The last line of the video is the practical one. If the reason super is late is cash, a short-term business loan secured by property can pay it on time, or clear a shortfall before the ATO assesses it, for a few months of interest and the loan's set-up costs. HomeSec lends from $20,000 to $5,000,000, with no repayments for up to the first six months and funds in your account in as little as 24 hours, so the loan can carry the business until the slow debtor pays or the busy season arrives. The full table, from paying a little late to repeat employers, is in the guide below.

Read the transcript

Paying super late just got expensive. Since July, super is due within seven business days of every payday. Miss it, and if the ATO finds it first, it adds interest, plus an uplift of up to sixty per cent. On fifty thousand dollars of super, that's about seventy-four thousand. Ignore the ATO's notice, and a twenty-five per cent penalty lands on top. And that penalty isn't tax deductible. Directors can be personally liable too. If cash is the problem, borrowing against your property to pay on time costs a fraction of that. HomeSec Business Finance. Australia's fastest and most flexible business loans.

The video's script. The $74,000 example assumes an ATO assessment about six months after the due date for a first-time employer (40% uplift), under the rules that apply from 1 July 2026.

Questions people ask next

Is the superannuation guarantee charge tax deductible?

Under the payday super rules that started on 1 July 2026, the charge itself is deductible. The general interest charge that builds up on a late charge, and the late payment penalty, are not. For quarters before 1 July 2026 the old charge was not deductible at all, so check which period your arrears belong to with your accountant.

Can the penalty really be more than the super I owed?

In the worst cases, yes. A repeat employer can face a 60% uplift and a 50% late payment penalty on top of interest, which takes the extra cost past 100% of the unpaid super. For a first-time employer who pays as soon as the ATO assesses, the extra is closer to half, which is still far more than borrowing would cost.

What if I pay late but before the ATO finds it?

That is the cheapest way to be late. Paying the shortfall and telling the ATO before it acts keeps the uplift low, and two months late on $50,000 costs roughly $1,000 to $1,550 rather than tens of thousands. It also matters for directors: disclosing within 60 days of the payday keeps a director penalty from becoming a lockdown penalty.

The full guide

The video is the short version. The written guide has the detail: behind on employee superannuation.

To talk it through about your own property, ring a Lending Manager on 1300 93 83 87, Mon–Fri, 8:30am – 5:30pm Melbourne time.