Super
Payday Super for Clinics & Allied Health Practices (From 1 July 2026)
From 1 July 2026, clinics and allied health practices must pay 12% super every payday and have it received by each fund within 7 business days. A plain-English guide for GP, dental and allied health employers — practitioner contractors, mixed pay arrangements, and what to do before the SBSCH closes 30 June 2026.
If you run a clinic or allied health practice — GP, dental, physio, psychology, podiatry, optometry or similar — your payroll usually has two distinct populations: employed support and clinical staff, and practitioners who may be contractors. From 1 July 2026, payday super changes how fast you must pay super for anyone who's caught: the 12% you owe must be received by each fund within 7 business days of every payday, not paid quarterly.
This guide is for the practice owner, practice manager or bookkeeper. It focuses on the area practices most need to get right — practitioner contractor arrangements — and the everyday change for your employed staff.
General information only — not financial, tax, superannuation, or legal advice. Confirm every requirement with the ATO (ato.gov.au), the Fair Work Ombudsman (fairwork.gov.au), or a registered tax or BAS agent before acting.
What changes on 1 July 2026
The reform is about timing, not the rate. Confirmed against the ATO:
- The rate stays 12% for FY2026-27 — unchanged, not rising.
- Super is calculated on Qualifying Earnings (QE) paid each payday — broadly OTE plus certain other payments. What counts as OTE has not changed.
- The 7-business-day rule: super is on time only if received by the fund, with everything needed to allocate it, within 7 business days of the qualifying-earnings payday. Received-by, not sent-by. Business days, never calendar.
- No exemption for small practices, and the obligation extends to independent contractors paid mainly for their labour.
The full background is in the complete employer guide to payday super. For practices, the real work is sorting which practitioners are caught and tightening the timing for your employed staff.
Practitioner contractors: the area to get right
Allied health and medical practices commonly engage practitioners as contractors or under service-facility agreements, rather than as employees. Payday super does not change who is caught — it changes how fast you must pay anyone who is. So the question is the same one you face today, just with a tighter deadline attached: is this practitioner an "employee" for super purposes because they're paid mainly for their personal labour?
A genuine practitioner-run-business or service-facility arrangement — where the practitioner runs their own practice, bills patients in their own right, carries their own risk and the clinic supplies rooms and admin for a fee — may sit outside the super obligation. An arrangement where the practitioner is effectively paid by the clinic mainly for their labour may be caught.
This is a substance-over-form question with real money attached, and the consequences of getting it wrong now include the new Super Guarantee Charge. Have a registered tax or BAS agent review your practitioner agreements before 1 July 2026. The ATO's position on who's covered is on its about payday super page.
Your employed staff: the everyday change
For your reception, nursing, admin and other employed staff, payday super is straightforward — the same 12%, just paid sooner. Because the reform doesn't change what's OTE, the items you already pay super on stay the same; only the timing tightens.
| Clinic pay item | Part of qualifying earnings? | Super on payday? |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary hours (employed staff) | Yes — OTE | Yes |
| Penalty rates on ordinary hours (weekend, evening) | Yes — OTE | Yes |
| Allowances that are OTE | Yes — OTE | Yes |
| Salary-sacrificed amounts that would have been QE | Yes — included | Yes |
| Commissions or commission-style payments | Always QE under the new rules | Yes |
| Overtime (where ordinary hours are clearly identified) | No — not OTE | No |
| On-call / standby payments | Depends on the award/agreement | If OTE, yes |
For the full pay-item-by-pay-item breakdown, see qualifying earnings vs OTE.
What it does to practice cashflow
Most practices currently pay employed-staff super monthly or quarterly. From 1 July 2026 it leaves with every pay run for everyone caught. The annual super is the same 12% — this is a timing shift, not a bigger bill — but it changes when cash leaves, which matters when practice income arrives unevenly (claim cycles, bulk-billing settlements, patient payments).
See your own numbers with the free Payday Super cashflow calculator: super-per-payday, annualised super, and the working capital that stops sitting in your account between batched runs. For the mechanics, including the one-off catch-up when you switch, read what payday super does to your cashflow.
New starters and fund details
Practices hire clinical and admin staff steadily, which means first contributions to new funds. The ATO gives a longer deadline: a new employee or a new fund's first contribution has 20 business days (not 7) after the qualifying-earnings day. Use it to confirm fund details up front so the next contribution lands inside the normal 7-day window.
Before 1 July 2026 — the clinic checklist
- Review every practitioner agreement for super status with a registered tax or BAS agent.
- Confirm your payroll software is payday-super-ready and reports YTD qualifying earnings + YTD super liability per employee via STP each payday.
- Map your staff pay items (penalty rates, allowances, on-call, overtime) to OTE-or-not.
- Check your clearing-house or fund turnaround beats 7 business days.
- Confirm employee fund details are current for all staff.
- Migrate off the SBSCH before it closes 11:59pm AEST 30 June 2026 — see the SBSCH closing guide.
- Run a dummy pay before 1 July to confirm super is received within 7 business days end to end.
Work the full 12-point readiness check and grab the free Payday Super readiness checklist and pack — built for practice managers and the bookkeepers who run clinic pay.
Estimate and general information only — not advice. Figures and dates are based on ATO, Treasury and legislation published as at 8 June 2026 and may be updated. Confirm with the ATO or a registered tax/BAS agent before acting. Super must be received by the employee's fund within 7 business days of payday from 1 July 2026; the SBSCH closes 11:59pm AEST 30 June 2026.