Super due dates for 2023 and 2024

Superannuation is an essential part of long-term financial stability for most Australians. It provides your employees with retirement income, helping them live comfortably throughout their golden years. However, as an employer, you must make super contributions on time. So, you need to be aware of super due dates. 

As the name of these dates suggests, these are the dates on which your super contribution payments for your employees are due. Continue reading to learn the super due dates for 2023 and 2024, who needs to pay superannuation, how to handle extra contributions, and more. 

When do employers pay super?

Employers must make superannuation contributions for their employees every quarter. Unfortunately, the dates that super payments are due change every fiscal year. So, as a new fiscal year commences, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the super due dates for that year. The super due dates for fiscal year 2023 (July 2023 through June 2024) are as follows:

• First Quarter: The first fiscal quarter spans from 1 July, 2023 to 30 September, 2023. First-quarter super payments are due 28 October, 2023. 
• Second Quarter: The second quarter runs from 1 October, 2023 to 31 December, 2023. Payments for the second quarter are due 28 January, 2024. 
• Third Quarter: The third fiscal quarter is from 1 January, 2024 to 31 March, 2024. Third-quarter payments are due 28 April, 2024. 
• Fourth Quarter: The fourth quarter is from 1 April, 2024 to 30 June, 2024. Fourth-quarter super payments are due 28 July, 2024. 

Who needs to pay superannuation?

If you’re an employer in Australia, you must pay superannuation for your employees, often all of them. Here’s who you need to make super contributions for:

• Employees over 18 years of age: You must pay superannuation for all of your employees who are 18 years old or older. This includes all full-time, part-time, and casual employees, regardless of how much money you pay them or how you pay them – even if they are temporary residents. All employees over the age of 18 are entitled to super contributions from their employers. 
• Employees under 18 years of age: There is no requirement for you to make super payments for some employees under 18 years of age. However, if you have an employee under 18 years old who works more than 30 hours in any week, you do need to make super contributions for them, regardless of how often or how much money you pay them. 

What to do when staff want to make extra super contributions

It can be difficult to attract quality employees to your business. One way to do so is to offer additional benefits for employees, benefits like salary sacrifice. In fact, the salary sacrifice benefit is especially useful when you have staff that want to make extra super contributions. 

Salary sacrifice gives your employees the ability to make additional super contributions, as well as pay for other benefits, on a pre-tax basis. This gives them the ability to reduce their overall tax burden. If you have staff who want to make additional super contributions, consider offering a salary sacrifice benefit to make that option available to them. 

Super funds and award rates

When you hire a new employee who’s eligible for super contributions, it’s important to give them a superannuation standard choice form. This form tells you which super fund you’ll need to pay the employee’s super contributions to. 

As an employer in Australia, you’re required to offer at least an 11% award rate. That means you must contribute at least 11% of your employees’ earnings into their super funds. However, the super award rate may increase to 15% by 2025. 

Late Super Payments

If you make late super payments, you’ll likely have to pay a superannuation charge. That charge is based on the unpaid amount plus an administration fee and interest on the amount you owe. 

The good news is that you can avoid additional fees by contacting the ATO. Even if you can’t make the entire super payment you owe, you may be able to set up an installment plan to avoid additional fees and further action. 

Super guarantee charges and due dates

As mentioned above, you are required to make your super contributions by or before the super due date for the period the super is owed. If you fail to do so, you’ll likely face penalties known as superannuation charges or super guarantee charges. There are three parts to the super guarantee charge:

• Shortfall Amount: Super contributions that haven’t been paid or that have been paid late. 
• Administrative Fee: This is a fee charged by the ATO to cover the administrative costs of collecting late super contributions. 
• Interest: You’ll also have to pay 10% per annum interest on the total past-due super contributions you owe. 

What Is a Clearing House?

It can be easy to get confused when you have multiple employees who want their superannuation contributions made to different funds. The good news is that you don’t have to fumble through the process and put in extra effort to make sure you make the right contributions to the right funds every quarter. 

That’s where superannuation clearing houses come in. 

A superannuation clearing house gives you the ability to make all of your super contributions for all of your employees from one platform. All you need to do is set up each employee in the platform when you bring them onto your team. The clearing house saves your employees’ super fund information and handles the disbursement of multiple payments for you. You simply make one lump-sum superannuation payment each quarter. 

Conclusion

Super guarantee contributions can be confusing, especially if you’re attempting to process them manually for multiple employees. However, the super contribution process doesn’t have to be a painstaking one. In fact, if you have a quality payroll solutions provider like Visory, chances are super contributions are as easy as a click of the mouse. 

Technological innovation has changed the way you do just about everything. Why not let technology simplify the payroll process? Learn more about how Visory’s payroll solutions can help simplify your super contribution process and let you focus more time on growing your business.