Leigh Mansell, director SMSF technical and education services for Heffron, said in a recent technical update, that the opt out rule is where an employee could apply for an exemption certificate, which would mean that an SG contribution wasn’t required from a particular employer.
“Of course, as part of that, you would have negotiated to get extra salary instead if you’re not going to receive your SG contributions,” Mansell said.
“Now, opt out rules, applying for an exemption certificate, weren’t common or aren’t common under the current rule, because they only are available if you’ve got multiple employers and they’re likely to exceed their concessional contribution cap via their SG contributions. You still have to receive SG from one of your employers, so that need for multiple employers generally meant that a lot of people didn’t qualify.”
She continued that as part of the process, employers also had to apply at least 60 days before the start of the relevant quarter, which made it a little bit difficult administratively.
“The new rules come in on 1 July 2026 and even if you work for a single employer, you’re going to be able to apply for an exemption certificate if you change employers throughout the year,” she said.
“You can also apply if you are likely to exceed your concessional contribution cap and apply for your certificate at least 30 days before the start of the relevant period. It will be interesting to see whether opt out concepts become more popular under payday super.”
Mansell continued that it is also important for employers to note that the small business clearing house will close on 30 June 2026, and is in fact closed to new users now.
“Existing users can keep using it, but it’s closed to new users and I think the message is not quite getting across that it is not being replaced so there will not be an ATO clearing house. There will not be an approved clearinghouse for SG purposes,” she said.
“Going forward, all employers will need to transition to commercial alternatives, such as a commercial clearing house, perhaps a clearing house connected with a super fund or a payroll system.”
She continued for accountants who do have clients who are using the small business clearing house, it is important to note there are several concessions that apply.
“They might not even realise that there are concessions which are special for them. For SG purposes, SG obligations are satisfied when the contribution is received by the clearing house, only when it gets to the small business clearing house,” she said.
“That rule doesn’t apply for other clearing houses. You actually have to get the money to the superannuation fund for it to count for SG purposes under the current rules. Similarly, from a tax deductibility point of view, we have a PCG, which means that employers can claim a tax deduction for their superannuation contributions when they send them to the clearing house because they’re using the small business clearing house.
“That rule doesn’t apply for people using commercial clearing houses now. However, because the small business clearing house is going to disappear, those concessions are going to disappear come 30 June 2026.”
Furthermore, Mansell said it is important that employers also ensure that if they are going to use the clearing house for their April to June quarter contributions, the normal cut off date for contributions to get there by 30 June is actually early in the month.
