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ATO approves real-time payments for super contributions
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has approved real-time payments for superannuation, removing a major hurdle ahead of payday super reforms.
The ATO has approved the New Payments Platform (NPP) in a move set to remove a significant barrier for the superannuation sector as it prepares for new obligations under proposed payday super reforms.
The taxation office announced that super funds must be able to receive NPP payments from 1 July 2026.
Until now, super funds needed to establish bilateral agreements to receive such payments. The approval creates a more consistent and scalable pathway for NPP adoption across the industry, making it easier for employers and clearing houses to transition to faster, data-rich payments.
The NPP is already widely used across the Australian economy, supporting around $6 billion in payments every day.
Services such as Osko, PayID and PayTo operate through the platform, which processes payments in near real-time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends and public holidays.
The addition of NPP as an approved method for superannuation contributions introduces the benefits of fast, data-rich payments to the superannuation sector.
These include instant confirmation that payments have reached a super fund’s account, along with validation of bank and payee details to help reduce errors and delays.
Adrian Lovney, chief payments and schemes officer at Australian Payments Plus (AP+) - which operate the NPP - said enabling real-time payments through the NPP will help “streamline compliance, reduce manual processes, and support industry-wide readiness ahead of the 2026 reforms – all while helping ensure super reaches workers more quickly and easily”.
Payday super reforms, scheduled to take effect from 1 July 2026, are designed to improve retirement outcomes by requiring employers to pay superannuation contributions at the same time as wages.
The ATO has estimated that more than $5 billion in super entitlements went unpaid in 2021–22.
Under the reforms, contributions must reach employees’ super funds within seven days of payday.
This represents quite a large change, as current systems often result in delays due to reliance on the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS), which only processes payments on business days and can take several days to complete.
Given the multiple parties involved in processing contributions (including payroll providers, clearing houses, payment gateways and super funds) the ability to make accurate, near-instant payments is expected to play a crucial role in the smooth implementation of payday super.
AUTHOR
Adrian Suljanovic
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