By Natasha Silveira | 15 September 2026 | 6 min read
Five compliance dates Australian employers miss most, and what it costs when they do.
key takeaways
- WGEA reports are due 31 May. The reporting window, including every extension, closes for good on 31 August.
- The 1 July award increase follows June's Annual Wage Review decision, and applies from a pay period, not the date itself.
- STP finalisation is due 14 July for most employees, 30 September for closely held payees.
- Payday Super requires contributions to reach the fund within 7 business days of payday, not just be sent.
- Crossing a payroll tax threshold in a second state creates a second, separate reconciliation deadline.
Most missed compliance dates in Australian payrolls aren’t missed because nobody knew the date existed. They’re missed because the date everyone remembers isn’t the date that actually matters. The compliance dates Australian employers miss most tend to share one thing: a gap between what the calendar says and what the regulator actually checks. WGEA lodgement day comes and goes while an extension quietly expires weeks later. The 1 July wage rise applies from a pay period, not a date. This piece goes deep on five of them, what the obligation actually is, why it slips past even careful payroll teams, and what it costs when it does. For the full year-round list, see VeiraMal’s HR and payroll compliance calendar.
The WGEA lodgement window: 31 May, then 31 August for good
Every private-sector employer with 100 or more staff has to lodge a Gender Equality Report with WGEA for the year running 1 April to 31 March, and the lodgement deadline is 31 May. That part gets remembered. What gets missed is the second date. If you can’t make 31 May, you can apply for an extension. But it has to be requested within the lodgement period itself, not assumed. A one month extension to 30 June is automatic. Anything longer needs a genuine reason. Whatever extension is granted, the reporting program itself, extension included, ends on 31 August. There is no lodging after that, and no editing a report submitted with less than 28 days left before the cutoff. Businesses that treat 31 May as the only real date often leave the extension application too late. Applications close at the same time as the original deadline. Miss the window entirely and the business lands on WGEA’s non-compliant list, loses eligibility for Commonwealth contracts, and has that gap sitting in a public register.
The 1 July wage rise that isn’t actually on 1 July
Every June, the Fair Work Commission hands down its Annual Wage Review decision, and every year the headline is the same: a percentage increase from 1 July. This year’s decision landed on 2 June 2026, a 4.75% increase to modern award minimum rates and a 6% lift to the National Minimum Wage, taking it to $26.44 an hour. The trap is in the fine print most employers skim past. The new rates apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July, not from 1 July itself. For a business running a pay cycle that starts mid-week, that can push the actual change a week or more past the date everyone diarised. Payroll that updates rates exactly on 1 July, rather than checking where the pay period actually starts, gets it wrong either way. It underpays the back half of a transitional pay run, or overpays the one before it. The consequence is a reconciliation job nobody budgeted time for. If it is underpayment, that also means exposure under the wage theft provisions that now carry criminal penalties for intentional breaches.
STP finalisation: 14 July, and a second date most employers don’t know exists
Single Touch Payroll finalisation is due 14 July for arm’s length employees, the point at which the ATO marks each income statement tax ready so staff can lodge their own returns. Most payroll teams know that date. Fewer know that closely held payees, family members and directors drawing wages from their own business, have a separate deadline of 30 September. A business with both types of employee still has to finalise the arm’s length group by 14 July regardless. The obligation gets missed less from ignorance of the date and more from treating finalisation as a formality rather than a reconciliation.
Finalising confirms the year’s reporting is complete and correct. That means every terminated employee, every casual who worked one shift in October, and every mid-year correction needs to be captured first. Finalise late, or finalise with errors that surface after employees have lodged, and the fallout lands on former staff as much as on the business. Delayed refunds, amended returns, a wave of calls asking what went wrong.
Payday Super: the payment has to arrive, not just leave
From 1 July 2026, superannuation guarantee contributions can no longer wait for the end of the quarter. Payday Super requires SG to be paid on every payday and received by the employee’s super fund within seven business days of that payday. That word, received, is where employers keep tripping up. Sending a payment through a clearing house on day seven doesn’t satisfy the rule if the fund itself doesn’t process and allocate it until day nine or ten. That happens more often than payroll teams expect. New employees whose fund details haven’t been verified yet are a common cause, and so are contributions routed through a clearing house with its own processing lag.
Under the old quarterly system, a few days’ delay in a clearing house was rarely fatal. Under Payday Super, that same delay turns a payment sent on time into one that arrived late. The superannuation guarantee charge that follows isn’t calculated on the shortfall alone. It adds interest and an administrative fee, and none of it is tax deductible. The ATO’s first year compliance approach is more forgiving for genuine, low risk errors, but that leniency is not a substitute for knowing your own clearing house’s actual processing time. VeiraMal’s guide to Payday Super covers the full transition in more detail.
Payroll tax reconciliation: one deadline becomes two the moment you cross a state line
Most businesses that register for payroll tax in their home state know the annual reconciliation date by heart, because it comes with a real penalty attached. Victoria’s is 21 July, no extensions available, penalty tax of up to 25% plus interest for lodging late. What catches businesses out is the second deadline that shows up quietly once the business starts paying wages in a state it wasn’t operating in before.
Grow into a second state and payroll tax obligations follow. That state has its own threshold, its own reconciliation date, and its own grouping rules for wages paid across the group. New South Wales’ annual reconciliation, for instance, falls on 28 July, a full week after Victoria’s. A business that reconciles its home state on time can still miss the second state’s deadline entirely. That happens most often when nobody flagged that crossing the new state’s threshold had already created a fresh registration and lodgement obligation. VeiraMal’s payroll tax threshold breakdown covers where every state’s threshold currently sits.
The five dates at a glance – paste as HTML/Code widget:
| Date | Obligation |
|---|---|
| 31 May | WGEA Gender Equality Report lodgement (extensions close 31 August) |
| 1 July* | Award wage increase, from the first full pay period on or after 1 July |
| 14 July | STP finalisation for arm's length employees (30 September for closely held payees) |
| Payday + 7 business days | Payday Super contributions must clear, not just be sent |
| 21–28 July | Payroll tax annual reconciliation (21 July VIC/QLD/WA/NT/TAS, 28 July NSW/ACT/SA) |
The other compliance dates Australian employers miss most
These five catch the most businesses out, but they are not the whole year. VeiraMal’s HR and payroll compliance calendar lays out every recurring date across payroll, HR and reporting obligations in one place, built specifically for Australian SMEs.
See every date, not just the five biggest
VeiraMal's HR and payroll compliance calendar covers the full year across payroll, HR and reporting obligations, built specifically for Australian SMEs.
View the Compliance CalendarOr book a free discovery call to talk through your specific dates
