This insight provides an overview of important business tax lodgement dates for 2026/27

Annual Employee Payment Summaries & Annual PAYG/W Summary Report

These should be prepared and lodged through the STP system by 14 July each year; unless the only employees are related parties in which case you have until 30 September.

Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR)

Businesses who make payments to contractors may need to report these payments and lodge a TPAR by 28 August each year. The industries required to lodge TPARs include:

• Information Technology services
• Building & Construction services
• Security, Investigation or Surveillance Services
• Cleaning services
• Road freight & Courier services

Contractors can include subcontractors, consultants and independent contractors. They can operate as sole traders (individuals), companies, partnerships or trusts.

SGC Superannuation contributions for employees:

This is the biggest change from last year’s version of this page, so it is worth reading in full rather than skimming for a date.

The quarterly super guarantee (SG) system ended on 30 June 2026. The final quarterly payment, covering the April to June 2026 quarter, was due by 28 July 2026.

From 1 July 2026, Payday Super applies to all employers. Super guarantee contributions must now reach your employee’s super fund within 7 business days of each payday, not by a quarterly deadline. A business day excludes weekends and public holidays in the relevant state or territory.

Longer timeframes apply in specific circumstances, including:

• the first contribution for a new employee or a new super fund;
• out-of-cycle payments, such as bonuses or back pay; and
• exceptional circumstances, such as natural disasters or IT outages.

In these situations employers can have up to 20 business days to pay.

If a contribution arrives after the deadline, the employer becomes liable for the super guarantee charge (SGC), which includes the shortfall, interest and an administration component, and which is not tax deductible. Paying late reduces the SGC but does not remove it.

In practical terms, this means super now needs to be part of every pay run, not a quarterly cash flow event. If your payroll process still budgets for super quarterly, it needs to change.

ACT Payroll Tax

• July – November – by 7th day after end of relevant month;
• December – by 14th of January;
• January – May – by 7th day after end of relevant month;
• June – lodged as part of Annual Reconciliation Return and payable by 28 July.

Business Activity Statements

BASs are the way employers pay their GST and income tax instalments to the ATO. The PAYG Withholding Tax deducted from employee wages for small employers (< $25,000 PAYG/W pa) can also be paid quarterly on the BASs.

For medium employers (paying between $25,000pa and $1M PAYG/W pa) they need to report & pay the other monthly PAYG/W amounts on Monthly Instalment Activity Statements which are due for payment by the 21st of the following month.

Large employers (paying more than $1M in the previous financial year) need to lodge and pay their PAYG/W electronically to the ATO within a week of the relevant wages payment.

*28 February 2027 falls on a Sunday, so the due date moves to the next business day.

Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) returns

If an employer provides Fringe Benefits to any employees or their associates, they should prepare an FBT Return.  The FBT year runs from 1 April to 31 March and the Statutory Due Date for lodgement & payment is 21 May. But Tax Agents have an extension to 25 June. The period ATO can review/audit a business’ FBT liability is two years “from date of lodgement of the FBT Return” so even if liability is nil, it is a good idea to lodge a nil tax return to make sure the ATO can’t review further back than two years.

Income Tax Returns

The 2026 tax return lodgement dates are:

31 October 2026 – Tax returns for all individuals and entities where self-preparing or if one or more prior year tax returns were outstanding as at 30 June 2026 (unless ATO has since revised lodgement date).

31 January 2027 – Large and medium taxpayers whose gross revenue is more than $10M pa.

31 March 2027 – Tax returns for individuals and trusts whose latest return resulted in a tax liability of $20,000 or more (excluding large and medium trusts). Tax returns for entities with total income in the 2026 year of more than $2M.

15 May 2027 – Tax returns for all remaining individuals and trusts if not required earlier. The ATO usually gives an automatic extension to 5 June 2027 but any tax payable must be paid at time of lodgement rather than when they issue the Notice of Assessment.

Late Lodgement & Late Payment Penalties

There are two sorts of ATO penalties that can be applied if you lodge and/or pay your tax late.

Failure to Lodge (FTL) Penalties

There is an automated penalty system that applies a FTL penalty to late-lodged returns, reports and statements, including:

• activity statements
• income tax returns
• FBT returns
• PAYG withholding annual reports
• Single Touch Payroll reports
• annual GST returns and information reports
• taxable payment annual reports.

The amount of the penalty depends on:

1. The size of the entity (Small, medium or large); and
2. How late the Return is.
3. The current amount of a “Penalty Unit”

For example:

The current penalty unit amount (from 1 July 2026) is $364.00.

For a small entity, the FTL penalty is calculated at the rate of one penalty unit for each period of 28 days (or part thereof) that the return or statement is overdue, up to a maximum of 5 penalty units.

For a medium entity, the penalty unit is doubled. A ‘medium entity’ is a medium withholder for PAYG withholding purposes or has assessable income or current GST turnover of more than $1 million and less than $20 million.

For a large entity, the penalty unit is multiplied by 5. A ‘large entity’ is a large withholder for PAYG withholding purposes or has assessable income or current GST turnover of $20 million or more.

To ensure we can help you lodge your tax returns on time, please provide the necessary information as soon as possible.

If there are unforeseen or mitigating circumstances, we can try to get you a lodgement extension, or, if already late, we can prepare & lodge a Request for Remission of Penalties to seek any penalties to be remitted.

General Interest Charges

These are charged on late payment of tax liabilities (regardless of whether the relevant return was lodged on time or late). They are also applied regardless of whether you have an extension of time to lodge or not ie if you are running late lodging your tax return, even if you have an extension of time to lodge, you should still look at paying an estimated amount of tax ASAP to minimise any interest charges.

The GIC rate is updated each quarter. Current rates can be found here. GIC is charged daily and is no longer tax-deductible, so you should look for alternative means to pay ASAP.

If you are having trouble paying your tax on time, please let us know so that we can discuss issues and options in more detail, and hopefully work out a Payment Plan that is acceptable to the ATO for you.