Imagine running a small business with 12 employees.

In October 2022, you authorise $24,000 in super before the deadline. The money leaves your bank account on 26 October. But it reaches your employees' super funds on 31 October, just three calendar days late. Every employee receives their full contribution.

You believe the payment is complete. Then, nearly four years later, an ATO assessment arrives.

Under the former rules, this hypothetical delay could cost around $16,445 in interest, administration fees and lost tax benefits, before any additional penalties.

Three days late. Four years of interest. How is that fair?

Under the old system, interest at 10% a year started months before the payment deadline. It could continue long after employees received their super, until a late-payment statement was lodged or the ATO issued an assessment.

But if you’re unaware something had gone wrong, what would have prompted you to lodge an SGC statement?

The system also treated payment services differently. Eligible businesses using the ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House could be treated as having paid when their payment was accepted. Businesses using commercial clearing houses generally had to wait until the money reached employees' funds.

Two businesses could send payments on the same day and face very different consequences.

And this isn't just a problem from the past.

With improved access to Single Touch Payroll (STP) information and super fund records, the ATO can identify historical payment discrepancies years later.

This helps protect employees. But data can tell us a payment was late. It cannot, by itself, tell us why.

Meanwhile, businesses can face years of accumulated interest, accountants' fees, wasted time and financial uncertainty over contributions employees received years ago.

Payday Super changed the rules from 1 July 2026, introducing a more proportionate approach. Yet historical liabilities remain subject to the old system. More frequent payment deadlines also make reliable processing and timely warnings increasingly important.

Employees deserve their super in full and on time. Deliberate non-payment should have serious consequences. But genuine processing delays despite reasonable efforts deserve fair treatment.

It's time for a fairer approach

We call on the Australian Government, professional accounting bodies and business associations to support three practical reforms.

1. Review historical super charges for genuine, minor delays.

Recalculate interest based on the actual delay, review related penalties and lost tax benefits, and give businesses a fair opportunity to demonstrate their circumstances.

2. Protect businesses from unavoidable third-party processing failures.

Provide meaningful protection where employers took reasonable steps to pay on time but experienced unexpected processing failures beyond their control, without excusing deliberate or repeated non-compliance.

3. Make payment failures visible before they become financial disasters.

Require clearer payment tracking, reliable processing timeframes and timely notifications of delayed or rejected payments so businesses can act before problems escalate.

These reforms would preserve employees' entitlements while ensuring consequences reflect what actually happened.

Australia should not have to choose between protecting employees and treating employers fairly. We can do both.

Sign and share this petition. Three days late should not mean four years of interest.