Name: EOY Payroll Prep & FY 2026 Readiness: What You Need to Know
Uploaded: 2025-06-24T05:04:48.108Z
Duration: 53 min 57 s
Description: EOY Payroll Prep & FY 2026 Readiness: What You Need to Know

Transcript for "EOY Payroll Prep & FY 2026 Readiness: What You Need to Know": Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today. It's lovely to have you all here with us. Now today, we're gonna be covering, three main things, the findings from the APA payroll report. Tracy is gonna run you through those. I'll be covering my recommendations around payroll testing, some opportunities I see present in the the gap for tests that we're we're undergoing typically across the industry today. And Louise is gonna cover end of year and payroll legislation changes, some key things to keep on top of that are changing, you know, with one July. Now today's session will be recorded. We will be sending it out to you all. And for those, who have registered, if you know people who have, just registering enough to to get that sent, so no worries there. We're gonna have some polls running in the background throughout. So please, by all means, enter those for us as you see fit, as you see them, as you come up. And we'll be making time for questions at the end. So you're encouraged to use the chat to ask those questions. There is a specific q and a section, that I'll point you towards. You'll find in the Goldcast app. You'll be able to ask those in there, and we'll be filtering through some of those and actually, going through them towards the end. Now don't panic if we don't have time to get to all questions. We'll address them all afterwards, in in our follow-up content. And now I'm gonna pass to Tracy to run through the APA payroll report. Thanks. Thanks, Jeff. And thanks for having me. Thanks to the team at Rippling. I won't be able to take you through the whole report, but I've I've got a a few things that are, most often asked of us. If anyone doesn't have this report, jump on our website and, and and just send us a note to to request that we can send you the link to download the the full the full thing. But one of the things that we talk about a lot at Australian Payroll Association is about derisking your payroll function. I'm very, very strict about thinking that anyone who works in payroll should be completely above suspicion of doing anything wrong and also the the processes should support, the governance and and that sits to derisk your payroll function. So one of the things that we asked, I think we had, 2,000 and something responses to, to our survey this year. We asked what, payroll risks that you were seeing in your business, and these were the top five. Poor and incomplete data, was also the the top risk last year. This is often the way this plays out in the pay office is when, someone might suggest that there's been issues with payroll, there might be mistakes in payroll. But, actually, when you reverse engineer what's gone wrong, it's actually been, mistakes in the data input. It's actually not mistakes in the data processing at all. So that was the the biggest risk that our, our survey respondents, mentioned. Another one was around difficulty with upgrading technology. Now we didn't ask a follow-up question to this. Is it actually difficult, or is it that you just don't have the time? We're not backfilling the payroll function while you do the the technical upgrades. I suspect it's a little bit of both. The third one was automation risks. You know, there's a lot of pressure that's being put on organizations and pay offices to automate the payroll function to, and and, again, I've been saying this for years, take the low value tasks and see if we can automate it. But you've still gotta have faith in that automation. So that was a a risk that was concerning. For the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last time, we saw cybersecurity concerns as a risk. We've certainly seen multiple payroll vendors being hit with cybercrime, and every every, employer in Australia has this risk of cybercrime. A friend of mine works for a cyber, crime company. They don't do cybercrime. They try and they generally fix it when when it's happened to you. And the way he talks about it is not if you will be hit with a cyber incident, it's when. So, that is definitely now a risk that, is is well on the minds of payroll managers in Australia. And the last of the top five is, payroll talent shortages, which, you know, we continue to see and I think we'll continue to see in the future. The best the best payroll practitioners out there are being specifically retained by their employers because, you know, it's really hard to find good experienced people in payroll in Australia. So those who are already, you know, are already in roles and the the employer recognizes that, you know, they want to keep them, they are being actively retained. Now the next, I don't know if I've got control of these slides or if someone else has. Oh, here we go. The magic happened. But we also asked about what challenges payroll managers were were seeing in, in 2025. And, you know, the biggest issue here is around system integration. Again, there's lots you know, with with technology that, as technology improves, you you might not find all your technology that you need to use from a single vendor, and, integration was an issue. I even saw, you know, this morning, the the CRM that we use has now got, ChatGPT completely integrated with it as a reporting tool. So, you know, these things are happening every day, and it won't be too long until we see the same sort of thing in payroll. So, but with integration, you get, you know, functionality increases, but, you you know, you you there it is a a it is can be a challenge to to roll that integration out. What we also see, again, common commonly certainly was in the, top four or five challenges last year was outdated technology and processes. It is a big piece of work to, change your payroll technology or your payroll processes or both. And what we see, oftentimes, organizations try to do both at the same time. So, that was that was certainly a challenge for many of you. Legislation changes. Again, I don't think these are going away, very quickly. If you look at the, you know, what the current government are looking to get through parliament, in the next twelve months, we will be that, I'm sure, will be continue to be on the on the top challenges list. And then you've got this award and EBA interpretation, which is, you know, with more and more organizations being being pulled up for incorrectly interpreting their award and EBAs. You know, the issue with this and, you know, we deal with this all the time. I think we've got something like 30 concurrent pieces of payroll consulting happening at the moment, and, you know, at least half of those have got to do with award and EBA interpretation and having to take to try and figure out if there is a back pay that's required, potentially from misinterpret misinterpreting award. But it could even be a really small amount in a really small circumstance, but that small amount over a large employer population over six or seven years can be a real material, challenge for an organization. So that is definitely a challenge. We are seeing technology coming out now, and there are some really fantastic players in this space who are, you know, giving an another layer of, of, I guess, governance around the payroll process. Happy to speak to anyone who wants to talk, about that in more detail. But we do we do like where these organizations are going in general. What I would say is make sure that if you're going to engage one of those organizations that you make sure that it's one that has good payroll knowledge support, not just, another piece of tech. Because what we find is if you look at, like, your outdated payroll technology, system integration, and the actual award and EBA interpretation, you can't just throw technology at these challenges. You need to have payroll expertise as well. And my final, thing I was gonna share with you today because we, you know, obviously got limited time, but I just wanted to give you a bit of a flavor of the review. I think this report's about 30 pages long, and as I said, just go to our website. You'll find out where to download that. It's really around, governance and compliance. And if your organization's not really taking this seriously and what actions that you might take, to help, your executive team understand what needs to be done to derisk your organization and make sure you've got good controls, good governance, and delivering a compliant payroll. You know, a lot of people talk about technology being compliant, but it's like saying a car is a good driver. It's actually the driver in the car that makes it safe or it or not. It doesn't matter how much, you know, how many airbags you've got. If you put, you know, a great car in the hands of a poor driver, you're still gonna have poor outcomes. So the four things to really consider here is what automation do you have of compliance tasks? Now that's like I say, you might even want to go to the point where you get some technology to over overlay your your payroll or even be part of your payroll process. So your your, your compliance and governance is happening before you actually, process payroll. You you do definitely need, strong governance payroll strong, governance frameworks around payroll. If you don't know what that is, or if you don't have examples of that, definitely get in touch with us. We some of that information on our, on our members' portal. We believe you should be doing proactive audits. Now I'm not talking about a big four, financial audit. I'm not, you know well, oftentimes, you know, that as much they get into payroll as, you know, are you paying enough superannuation as you should be? But I'm in proactive audits to look at what your employees should have been paid, what they did get paid, and if there's a difference in in those things to reverse engineer back why. So we believe you should be doing that. It's certainly every 12 months, to make sure that you're not having to ever be in a situation where you're gonna have to do back pays over multiple years. And the other thing is, as I say about, you know, it doesn't matter how great your car is. If your driver doesn't know the, you know, the the road rules, you're going to have poor outcomes. So, again, if you haven't if you and your team haven't had continuous training and upskilling, you know, that that for me is a absolute risk to payroll governance and compliance. I could actually talk about this all day, but, I know that you're busy and it's the crazy time of year. So I will pass back over to you, Jeff. And if anyone's got any questions, I'll be here at the end to take them. Thank you. Thank you. Now I'm gonna be running through how to avoid some of the key mistakes I find, that happen, in in payroll. I know a little bit about May 1. And we're playing I am the senior modern awards and compliance expert. So I sit in the sales team a little bit, where I deal with kind of who we sell to, what we sell, how we sell to make sure that everything is properly qualified and, you know, we can meet the needs of of all of our customers. I sit in the implementation team as well such that, you know, what we build, how we build is is up to scratch is meeting the needs of our customers that, you know, they're highlighting to us. I sit in the product team as well. So I work with what we build and how we build in the product space, specific to to modern awards and compliance for Australia there. So I'm a bit across, you know, many many many realms. But from there, what I'm focusing on today, is the testing that I see that undergoes typically payroll go lives, but there's a little bit of a takeaway here from, for for everyone. Now while I'm focusing on go lives, we're approaching in the financial year, I can imagine, there is a quite a few of you who have a go live coming up, you know, with with your first pay in July. This system is or this is these dates are already exposed to to risk. You're busy otherwise. You've got a lot on your plate. You've got a whole year of rollover for rates. You've got the STP finalization coming up as well. Something that that very often happens with everything else going on at the time. New systems are going live, with incomplete testing. Now what I mean by incomplete testing, not everything that should be tested is tested. Now I'll go through a bit about that shortly. But something else to consider here is there's already present compliant risk compliance risks going on. All it takes is one mistake, and now you're spending extra time over here chasing that down, pulling that thread, seeing, you know, what where that goes, how to fix it. And all it takes is that, and now another problem comes up because your time is spent elsewhere. One thing can very often turn into two, three, four, five, etcetera. Now now from there, parallel runs, a a a great basic validation, but that's all they can really do for us. They they sort out what I'm gonna call, you know, employee specific information, your employee, you know, rights, taxes, garnishments, additions, deductions, etcetera. They will very often build false competence. The amount of times I've I've seen someone just wanna do a parallel run and then go straight to go live, and and that pay period doesn't necessarily even have overtime in it. You know, it doesn't necessarily have a weird edge case that's occurred or or something that might even happen once a year. Now from there, what does what does it look like? You know, how do we start repositioning what we're thinking about when we look at these proper tests? Now very, very often, you know, it it's it's entirely normal that a parallel run is done first. I would argue this should be done at the end. But for this, let's say we've done a parallel run because that's gonna be the normal approach. Now what was tested in that parallel run that may happen that hasn't even necessarily happened, you know, before? What do I need to be chasing down to see what that outcome looks like in my system? This could be something that is, you know, once a month, once a once a year, once every six months. It doesn't matter. It could be something that is seasonal. Hey. I'm going live in July, but I know I've got a seasonal period in in Christmas, and it's gonna be crazy. What might happen there that hasn't been tested properly? The sorts of questions I will typically ask myself, what does daily overtime look like on a weekday, Saturday, Sunday, a public holiday? You know, the the the four types of days we get there. What does period overtime look like in the same cases? So penalties. You know, my employee who gets a penalty, does the penalty drop off when the shift becomes overtime even if I expect it to, if I don't expect it to? How does that look? What about weird overtime cases like, starting at 11PM? Sunday is double time immediately. Do we only get the one hour of overtime, or or do we end up with a weird two hour case because it's not recalculating properly? Do we know what happens if the employee would have, daily or weekly overtime, but is on a half day of paid leave. You know, in that case where that would push them over into period overtime, is the is the overtime applying itself to the correct portion of that day that I would expect it to? Is it trying to transform the leave? Is it not happening at all? Is this resulting in underpayment or overpayment? Are things as I expect them to be? Now now from there, it it really is truly critical to to know and understand the full suite of what your needs are today, but also what they might be tomorrow. These are just examples of of a surface test, you know, surface edge case test. The the cases that apply to you, what you'll need to test is going to be very specific to you and your business. There is no way to kind of take a set of tests done over here and apply them here. It's gonna be different per system, different per business, different deal with your interpretation of any given, you know, modern award or EBA. What is important to note, though, your per payroll provider or your software provider will be able to tell you, you know, what the full suite might look like. They're gonna help you get there. They might not do it for you, of course, but they know how their system ticks, how it moves, how it breeds. They'll know what can change in a set of time data that would result in a change in pace. You know? So they'll be able to help you with that. And it is really, really, truly critical to know those needs, for not only today but tomorrow so you can input on that testing. So you can be building a full suite so you can truly, truly try and break it for lack of a better term. That that is the kind of perspective I try and and consult people to take. Hey. You know, I've built this for you. Try and break it. Think of a scenario I kind of possibly have built around, and let's work together to break this thing so we can build something that's going to serve serve you for years with no concern. Now from it, you know, you don't don't just accept, you know, what the process is, just because that that's what you've been given. It it's very often something I find. People don't ask themselves why they're doing what they're doing. And I, you know, for most of your, you know, arrows, it could be you've inherited that. You've been given a process. You you've picked it up from someone else, and you just it's just still going through the motions. This is a perfect opportunity to ask yourself, why? Why am I doing this? Why is this the process? Why do we do it this way? And that very often will lead yourself to to find opportunities for improvement and change. Now something to note here, especially with this time of the year, it could be, you know, a new EBA is going live or, you know, an update to an award in your in your account, you know, in in your payroll system. Not just payroll go lives need to think about this, but it could be that you've been live on your on your payroll system for five years, and you've never done a an edge case test, now is still just a good of a time to think about that with the means of you know, with the thinking of protecting yourself in the future. Now from it, even me, so I build our out of the box prebuilt modern awards for Rippling. Even just last week, I had a very, very specific edge case come up where it wasn't working properly, where if a shift had both period overtime and the span of hours overtime on the same shift, it wasn't actually working properly because of the way I'd layered the checks. I was looking for period overtime before the, standard hours check. And so when we when I was looking for the thirty eight hours in the lake for a full timer, that first hour, which was supposed to be spent, wasn't actually being counted as overtime. And so there was a miscount that ended up an hour short on on, you know, ordinary time. This this happened to everyone. It it's important that everyone goes through it, because even the smallest of edge cases that could barely ever come up can and will at some point. It's a matter of when, not if. Now from there, you know, what what does success look like? You know? Real world edge case testing, as best as you can. I know, obviously, that is a very time intensive thing. It takes time to think about the test, to process the test, to review the test, but, you know, Tracy mentioned it before, sometimes it's it's lack it's lack of resources on the, you know, on these cases. And speaking from experience, that's by far and away the most common case I run into where you've already got you know, a forty five hour work week, as I told you, doing what you're doing. And you're given a project to handle, and you're not given any extra resources for that. You're already just kind of doing it alongside the rest of your existing work week. And so it's important to to make the case to find the time. However, being able to see the config, you don't necessarily have to be able to do it yourself, you know, in your system. But being able to see the config and understand your award config, is quite important. It's a sort of thing that you're only going to get more out of your system if you can do that. And from there, you know, truly understanding the inner workings of how things move, how things tick, what influences the pay, why things are layered the way they are is only going to help you get more out of your payroll. Now for me, what what does it look like, you know, across a whole team? Having, you know, teams trained in the new processes before the first payroll in an ideal world, you know, not doing the training on, you know, on the first payroll as very often does happen. But, you know, if if there are problems in an edge case test, and sometimes things are impossible to build around. But if there are gaps that cannot be solved, they should be entirely documented and understood. You know, how you can easily identify when they occur should be you know, you need to have mechanisms to do, and then instructions for how you need to adjust them. Hey. Here's a report. Here's how we find this thing or, you know, it sends us alerts. This is what we look for. These are the steps we take to manually rectify that, but it's all made easy for us because we are explicitly told where we need to look and what we need to do to handle this case. You know, from you know, all that together from there, as you build more confidence, you you know, using your your payroll softwares as as you, you know, look to to to grow that out, you'll gain more natural confidence as you move forward into, you know, FY '26, FY '27, and beyond. Just having more of that core inner working knowledge of your systems, and that all comes from that testing, as a base. And from there, I'm going to pass over to Louise to run you through some of the changes for f y '26 legislation. Yeah. So thank you so much, Jeff. And I think you hit the nail on the head there. It's about finding time. And, unfortunately, especially at this time with end of year, payroll really don't have that time. But it is really important, like you said, is to work with your system, and trying to find out ways that they can actually help us, as well. And I liked how you said all it takes is one mistake, and that's so true, especially what we saw with Tracy's survey that it is just one mistake that can actually be like a landslide, really. So welcome everyone today, to the end of financial year with payroll updates. My name is Louise, and I work with Australian Payroll Association. At Australian Payroll Association, and I'm sure probably like Rippling, we like to create confidence in the way that people are paid. And we do this through many different ways, through membership, and I know there's quite a few members here today. So welcome. We also do that through training, providing ongoing training to our payroll in, payroll world. Now I'm not sure about you guys. When I first started in payroll, I learnt off the last person. Who learnt off the last person? Who learnt off the last person who never had any tray payroll training. So we are seeing such a big increase with companies investing in their payroll, and they do it through Australian Payroll Association, of course. We also offer qualifications and, of course, recruitment as well. So we try and make sure that the whole area of payroll is looked after. Now today, I am going to go through end of financial year. We're gonna look at also some changes that are coming in with legislation. Now I've got a lot to cover, so I do apologize if I go a little bit fast. But I wanna make sure that you have all the information that you need. And, obviously, we're not gonna cover all aspects of end of year. I wish I could. But today, we only have limited time. So, hopefully, for those that need more information, if you are a member, reach out to us. You've got our help desk line. For those that aren't members, hopefully, in the future, you will be. Now today, we're gonna start off with all employers should be reporting through Single Touch Payroll, STP, by now. With STP reporting, you are actually still required to finalise your declarations by the July 14 each year. This ensures employees can access the finalised income statements via their myGov account to complete their tax returns. Now if you are unable to make the finalisation declaration by that due date, you must apply for a deferral from the ATO. And the July 14 deadline applies regardless of whether it falls on a weekend or a weekday. However, of course, this year, it actually does fall on a weekday. Thank goodness. Now the finalization declaration must include all payments made up and including the June 30. Now if the June 30 does fall on the weekend like it did last year, then you still need to make sure that you have it within that time. So you should ensure that all payments, including any out of cycle payments or express payments up to the last day that last business day of June are included. Any payments with a payday of, the July 1 or after are reported in the next financial year. Now once you've submitted the finalization declaration, employees will see the status of their payment information in their myGov change from not tax ready to tax ready, indicating that they can actually now lodge their tax returns. If employees attempt to lodge their tax return before their income statement is marked tax ready, which happens all the time, unfortunately, they must actually acknowledge with their with the ATO or their tax agent that the information is unfinalised and may be subject to check, to change, potentially requiring an amendment and possibly additional tax being paid. Now you may want to communicate to your employees that the end of year will be done by the July 14. And, of course, if you finalise it earlier, you can always send out an email to your employees to notify them, and they can go and do their tax return. I always used to find employees who will come up to me on the July 1 and say, why isn't my tax ready? And the best thing to do is to communicate with our employees. So definitely getting in there before they start asking those questions. Now employee or employers who report through STP are exempt from providing the traditional PAYG payment summaries to employees for amounts reported via STP. However, if any payments were not reported through STP, you are still required to provide a payment summary to for those amounts. Now currently, as we know, superannuation has a quarterly cutoff date. Quarterly cutoff date for superannuation contributions for April to June of twenty twenty five quarter must be paid by the July 28. Now some employers choose to process their superannuation guarantee contributions for employees before the July 1. Now these contributions consist of both the compulsory superannuation guarantee payments made by your employer and any voluntary personal contributions employees may choose to sacrifice, so such as their pretax salary sacrifice. Now if contributions are deposited into an employee's superannuation account before the June 30, they will be counted towards the current financial year and included in the employee's concessional contribution cap. Now please note that this period is typically a very busy time for superannuation funds, which may result in processing delays. So you may actually need to check with your superannuation fund if there is gonna be any delays. Now many super funds set a cutoff date for processing personal contributions in June, often one or two weeks before the end of the year. So, obviously, time's ticking. We definitely pass that one or two weeks. If contributions are submitted on the June 30, there is a risk that it may not be credited to the employee's super fund. So to ensure contributions are processed in the intended financial year, making sure that we send off the superannuation with enough time for them to process. Now when it comes to the annual reconciliations for payroll tax, it is a mandatory, process where employee or employers reconcile the total payroll tax paid throughout the full financial year with the actual payroll figures. Now this ensures accuracy and compliance with state regulations. Now the due dates for the current financial year vary slightly across Australia, for the states and territories. For the Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, and WA, the annual reconciliation is the July 21, Whereas the ACT, New South Wales, and South Australia, you have a little bit more time. You've got till the July 28. Now I used to work for companies where they had every single state and territory. I always made sure that I did it by the twenty first because we don't wanna drag it out. Let's be honest. So how do our year end numbers look? Now it's really important that we look at our year end figures really from the start of the financial year. We should be looking at it as we go along. We shouldn't be waiting until the last week of the financial year to be looking at overpayments or looking at our STP coding. We should be doing that as we go along. Just like what Tracy said, it is important to do all this as we go along, not just waiting until everything hits the fan and then we are stuck trying to do years and years of reconciliation. So making sure we do that throughout the year. Now there are some key areas that we wanna make sure that you are actually ready for. Verifying employee and payroll details. So looking at their tax file number, making sure that all your employees have provided their tax file numbers to you and also their payroll details. Check the STP codes for each payroll code. Complete then reconcile your pay runs, finalizing all the payments and ensuring payroll records match the financial data, also finalizing year end, communicating to your employees when your year end is gonna be completed because we're trying to reduce those phone calls to payroll. They also should see in their myGov, as I said before, when they are tax ready. Also updating payroll system for the new year, which we'll go through those changes in a moment, applying software updates for super and tax rates, and remove and update any PAYG withholding variations. So reviewing and updating pay rates where required. Now when it comes to the new rates, there are key financial year changes that we actually need to be prepared for. And this includes changes to superannuation, rates and thresholds for taxation, paid parental leave, payroll tax rates, and the national minimum wage. Now effective the 07/01/2025, the superannuation guarantee rate will increase from 11.5% to 12%. Now this adjustment represents the final scheduled increment in the SG rate as legislated. Now it is important to note that superannuation contributions are calculated based on the employee's pay date. Consequently, any payments made on or after the 07/01/2025, you must apply the new 12% contribution rate regardless of the period during which the work was performed. So for example, we've got Joan here who is processing the fortnightly pay run for the following pay period. The fortnight runs from the June 23 to the July 6. The pay date is actually the July 10. Now superannuation on this pay would actually be calculated at 12%. Even though some of the pay period actually was related to June, the fact is it is based on the payday. Now if the payment date was, let's say, the June 30, then the superannuation would be at 11.5%. Now the help desk queries lately have been quite a lot in regards to redundancies. Redundancy is where the employee terminates on the June 30, but they're not actually processing the payment until, let's say, the first or the July 2. Now as we know, in lieu of notice, it's the only termination payment that attracts superannuation. Now if they had a termination date of the thirtieth but were processing the payment in the new financial year, Now we have the pay superannuation at 12%. So just being really mindful of that. We also have to look at employees where they have a total remuneration package. Let's say you've got an employee with a $150,000 as total remuneration package, which includes the superannuation. An employer has one of two choices, depending, of course, on the employee's contract, always seeking legal advice if you are unsure. But the employer could actually leave the total renumeration package at a 150,000 as we can see in option one. In that case, we're gonna be decreasing the base salary and increasing the superannuation. Otherwise, the second option is option two, where the employer keeps the base salary as per normal but increases the superannuation. And as a result, the total remuneration package actually increases. Now as I said, seek legal advice. If it is not clear in the employee's contract, always reaching out to our HR team or the business and seeking advice. Remember, payroll really only does what we are told to do, and we get told to do a lot of things from a lot of different bodies. So making sure we work with our business, especially before the superannuation increases. Now there are a few more rates and thresholds that are changing for any payments made on or after the July 1. The first one is the life or death benefit ETP. So the ETP cap is actually going to be changing to 260,000. So remember that's any payments on or after the July 1. Like I said before, the employee might be terminating on the thirtieth. But if you're processing the payment in the new financial year, we're also looking at the new tax rates as well. We also have the tax free portion of a genuine redundancy and early retirement scheme. We have the base limit increasing to 13,100, plus they also have the $6,552 for each year of completed service. We also have the maximum superannuation contribution base, which is or actually decreasing to 62,500. So this is the maximum gross amount that employers would have to pay superannuation on. So if an employee receives $80,000 per quarter, well done, but the employer only has to pay superannuation based on 62,500 for the quarter. As I said before, superannuation is increasing to 12%. The concessional contribution cap is 30,000, so that's unchanged. The non concessional contribution cap's also not changed at a 120,000, and we've got the new high income threshold of a 180,500. Now the government paid parental leave from the 07/01/2025 is actually going to change from twenty two weeks to twenty four weeks, and that will be paid at the new national minimum wage, which we'll discuss in a moment. Now we also have changes for payroll tax. Payroll tax is actually changed sometimes or normally in the state or territory budget. Sometimes it actually might say that there is no changes as we can see with Tasmania, South Australia, and WA. However, there are changes to the Northern Territory and Victoria, so definitely keeping an eye out for that. We also have Queensland that's meant to be released today, so definitely keep an eye out for that if you've got the employees in Queensland. And we also have New South Wales and the ACT that is gonna be released, I'd say, probably this week or if not next week. So keeping an eye out for that. And, of course, if you are members, we will let you know in our members update each month, each month. We also have the national minimum wage, which applies to employees not covered by an award or registered agreement. Now this is the minimum pay rate provided by Fair Work is reviewed every single year. Now the new national minimum wage will be $948 per week or $24.95 per hour. Now employees covered by an award or registered agreement are entitled to the minimum pay rates, including penalty rates, allowances in their reward or agreement. Now these pay rates may actually be higher than the national minimum wage. Fair Work will release the new pay guides at the June. The pay guides will actually have the minimum pay rates for full time, part time, and casual employees. Now when it comes to the pay rate changes from the July 1 each year, the rate actually increases, on the first full pay period on or after the July 1. So just being really mindful of that. That is different to superannuation rate increase, which is based on the payment day. Right increases are based on the first full pay period. So let's say you've got an employee who is getting paid for the June 23 to the July 6. Because that's not a full pay period in the new financial year, that whole payment will be at the old employee rate. Whereas from the July 7 to the July 20, that's a full pay period within the new financial year. So that will be at the new higher rate. Okay? So it's not half at the old rate and half at the new. It's a nice clean first full pay period. Now there are some new financial year changes that we need to discuss, superannuation on parental leave pay, right to disconnect for small businesses, and, of course, what everyone's been talking about, payday super. Now superannuation on parental leave pay, this is from the 07/01/2025, but the Australian government will actually pay superannuation on government paid parental leave for eligible parents of babies born or adopted on or after that date. Now the superannuation payment will be calculated at the superannuation guarantee rate, which, of course, will be 12% by the July 1. This contribution will be paid as a lump sum into the parents' nominated superannuation fund after the end of the relevant financial year, including an interest component by the ATO. It's quite funny how we have deadlines, but the ATO has a whole year to actually make that payment. Brant is over. Do not worry. The first superannuation payment under this scheme will actually be made in July 2026, covering the government paid parental leave paid during the financial year. So key takeaways from this is it will actually be the ATO that will be making these payments, not payroll. Finally, there's one thing we don't have to do. Employer that already pay superannuation on government pay parental leave. We'll actually need to discuss with the business what they do from the first of July. Do they continue paying it even though the government's gonna pay it, or do they actually change the company policy and cease making those payments? So, also, another key area that I would say is maybe employers need to make sure that they communicate this to their employees because employees might be coming to you saying, where's my superannuation? But it's actually up to the ATO to make those payments. Right to disconnect. On the 08/26/2025, Australia's right to disconnect laws will also apply to small business employers. Now a small business is defined as fewer than 15 employees, and this follows a year led in, lead up period after the laws first applied in August 2024 for larger businesses. Now employers of small businesses will actually have legal right to refuse to monitor, read, or respond to work related contact such as calls, emails, and messages from their employer or third parties outside their normal working hours unless it would be seen as unreasonable to refuse. Now what's unreasonable to you might not be unreasonable to me. So we have to have a look at what Fair Work classifies as reasonable. We have to look at the reason for the contact. For example, it might be an emergency. Maybe the employee hasn't turned up to work for a few days. It might be a checkup seeing that they are okay. Also, the method and level of disruption caused by the contact, contact. Sorry. Whether the employee is compensated for that time, example, extra pay, also the nature of the employee's role and the level of responsibility, and the employee's personal circumstances. And last but not least is payday super. So payday super is gonna be a significant change for payroll. It's basically gonna be an overhaul of the superannuation, regime. The government is actually looking at commencing this on the 07/01/2026. However, there are various professional bodies and industry groups that have urged the government to delay the rollout by at least twelve, ideally, twenty four months or longer, ideally, citing that small businesses and also superannuation industries are not yet prepared for the significant compliance change. Now Australian Payroll Association are keeping a close eye on this and are actually working with the ATO. We've been in quite a lot of their, talking tables, letting them know, giving a voice to payroll or saying about the issues that we have with payday super. Instead of making superannuation contributions quarterly, employers will actually be required to pay super at the same time as they pay wages, meaning that super will actually be paid with every pay cycle. So instead of paying superannuation four times a year, it could be if you've got weekly employees that you are now gonna be doing it 52 times a year. So this change is designed to help workers get their super faster. However, it is obviously gonna be a lot of work for payroll. Super must now, or from the July 1 or once they've actually passed the legislation, must be paid within seven calendar days of each payday. If employers are late, penalties, obviously, will apply, including interest and fines. This is to ensure that everyone gets what they are owed on time. Now the ATO will closely monitor these payments to make sure that employers are doing the right thing. This will be done by reviewing the information from STP and, of course, the information from the superannuation funds of the employees, and then they're gonna be checking that. So small business clearing house is also due to close on the 07/01/2026, so that's something to be mindful of as well. And that is it for me today. Jeff, I'll pass it back over to you if there is any questions. And, obviously, if I can't get through all the questions, I will make sure that I send through the responses after today's session. Well, we have we have a few come through. We can there's one question we can actually two two questions that are kind of the same question. Mhmm. Let's let's get this, second one from the bottom here. Right. Can I pull Chigot, you send over the one from 02:04PM to the screen for everyone? And I'll start reading it out. So the question is, so our pay cycle is falling in every Wednesday. Mhmm. So twenty fifth to the first will be paid in July. Do we need to add that in June, dear, FYI? So twenty fifth of I assume it's of June of June. Is that correct? I would assume so. Yes. Yeah. So if it is on the June 25, if you're making all of the payments before the thirtieth of or before the July 1, then yes. Absolutely. That will be included in the current financial year. And this would be the same as you're doing an out of cycle payment. You would need to make sure that that's included in the current financial year if you're paying it before the July 1. Absolutely. And then then likewise, if it is in July, it's based on solely when that pay date lands. So if if you if you process on the second or third, even though you've got pay dates within June, that is then in the new financial year. And that's where that that payment falls. Absolutely. Yeah. Definitely. So it's definitely a good idea to, especially now, look at when is your last pay run and making sure that you're including that. You might be thinking, no. I'll just run year end now. But if you've got a payment that you need to make for an employee, let's say for a termination tomorrow, that still needs to be included because you're definitely making it before that July 1. Yeah. Cool. Let's let's pass over the question from D n 214. Check. I've received mixed information about SGC Max cons. Some say it's still being made quarterly, a g 70 500. Others say it's now going to top out at 30,000 with no specific quarterly kind of review happening, I guess, annual in that case. Right? But when is authority? Absolutely. So it is still quarterly, so we need to make sure that we are still meeting the quarterly cutoff date. So if an employee is a high income earner, you need to still make sure that you're paying 11.5% of their superannuation for the quarter up until that maximum superannuation contribution base. Now when it comes to payday super, they are looking at changing it to a annual amount. And we have had a few concerns in regards to that. A, what happens if a high income earner starts with one company and hits $30,000 in superannuation, and then halfway through the year, they change to another company. And then they also have their own maximum superannuation contribution space. So we are definitely passing on that information to the ATO. We are looking at how is it affecting payroll. But currently, you still need to make maximum superannuation contributions based based on the quarter, not the annual amount. Okay? So, looking let's look at the most recent question, Kate, from Wendy at 02:23. Is there any proposed change for super paid for independent contractors in relation to payday super? Not at the moment. With the ATO, they consider contractors that are required to receive superannuation just as employees. So the payday super, we have been told that that means that they still need to have their superannuation within seven calendar days. Now this becomes a little bit tricky because, as we know, it's normally accounts payable that pays the contractor. They normally pass on the information for the superannuation that we wash through the payroll. So definitely having a look at with the company, how are you going to reduce the amount of time that you have to get that information so you can make sure that the employee or the contractor's superannuation is paid within that seven days. We have highlighted that also with the ATO that it is a concern because we don't always get told the information quite quickly. So definitely, we'll keep an eye out for that. For those that are members, if we do hear anything of any changes in regards to contractors, we will make sure that you, know, that you know about it. Speaking of, I I know you've got a bit to talk about about how someone can become a member if they aren't already. Absolutely. So if you are thinking about becoming a member, it is actually quite good. We have lots and lots of members that use our service. A lot of the time, we have people call us us, call up us, instead of going to Fair Work and the ATO because, our waiting times are a little bit shorter. Obviously, at the moment, we are inundated with questions in regards to end of year. But with our membership, you get discounts in training, which I think is very, very important, especially to reduce those mistakes. We also, offer our help desk line that you can contact us, Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 05:00, Eastern Standard Times, of course. We also provide monthly webinars. So these are around thirty minutes to forty five minutes. And this is ongoing training for your team, so it is very, very important. We also send out an email with the latest legislation changes. I'm not sure about any of you. I always found it very hard to keep on top of the legislation. So let us do not bore you. And that means that we provide that to you. And I normally used to print that out, see with my team, highlight the areas that actually affected our company but also our team, and then have a discussion. Because I find that, you know, it might be great that the payroll manager and maybe the compliance manager has all of the information, but it is great to be able to sync as a team and make sure that everyone is understanding the changes when it comes to payroll. So please, if you feel like you wanna become a member, reach out to Australian Payroll Association. More than happy to take any of your phone calls, and assist you on that journey. Speaking of, we do, in the doc section, found within Goldcast, you'll find a, a little exclusive offer that we have right now, in that first available doc. Alongside the link to grab the payroll industry report, that the team have done, and the link to to learn more about that payroll leadership academy training. Beautiful. Cool. So that wraps up everything we were going to to run through today. Thank you all very, very much for your time. It's been an absolute pleasure, and I look forward to more stories about how everyone's becoming successful with payroll and achieving compliance in f y twenty six and beyond. Thanks, everyone.