Key Highlights

  • Employers have been receiving ATO letters warning they may have underpaid super guarantee in quarters going as far back as September 2021, with one restructuring adviser describing them as "a demand for payment".
  • The letters are headed "Your data shows you may not have met your quarterly super guarantee (SG) obligations".
  • Eddie Griffith, chairman of the Affiliation for Business Restructuring and Turnaround, Some listed quarters back to September 2021.
  • On those figures, the shortfall in that one quarter averaged more than $1,400 per employee, since $96,000 divided by 67 is about $1,433.

Employers have been receiving ATO letters warning they may have underpaid super guarantee in quarters going as far back as September 2021, with one restructuring adviser describing them as "a demand for payment". The letters, reported by Accountants Daily on 22 September, ask employers to review their records and pay any super guarantee charge owed. With Payday Super now in force and the ATO's first-year compliance test applying from 28 October 2026, how employers respond matters now.

What the Letters Say

The letters are headed "Your data shows you may not have met your quarterly super guarantee (SG) obligations". They ask employers to pay the super guarantee charge to avoid the risk of an audit.

Eddie Griffith, chairman of the Affiliation for Business Restructuring and Turnaround, Some listed quarters back to September 2021. One listed 19 consecutive quarters, and another cited a shortfall of more than $96,000 across 67 employees in a single quarter.

On those figures, the shortfall in that one quarter averaged more than $1,400 per employee, since $96,000 divided by 67 is about $1,433.

Why Advisers Say the Tone is a Problem

Griffith was critical of how the letters read. "It's a demand for payment," he said. "They're being treated as if they're a non-compliant taxpayer, and the letter is pretty aggressive."

He also pointed to their appearance: "It's in the same colour as a director penalty notice." Director penalty notices can make company directors personally liable for certain unpaid company debts, so a letter that resembles one is likely to alarm recipients.

For accountants, Griffith said the workload is a concern. "It is an enormous time burden, and it's potentially unbillable."

The ATO's Side: Data Matching and Nudges

The ATO has defended the approach. "Where available data indicates a potential SG shortfall, the ATO may issue an SG nudge letter to the employer," a spokesperson

The spokesperson said the ATO had issued these letters for several years. They are intended to give employers "an opportunity for employers to review their records, correct any reporting errors" before further action is taken.

The data behind the letters comes from Single Touch Payroll and SuperStream, combined with data matching and risk models. On its Payday Super compliance page, the ATO lists the types of mismatch it looks for. These include missing SuperStream information such as an ABN, contributions paid under a different ABN from the one used for Single Touch Payroll, unidentified workers, payroll reporting errors and late reporting.

The scale of the issue is significant. ATO Deputy Commissioner Anna Longley said in a September 2025 speech that small businesses owed $1.9 billion of super guarantee charge within their collectable debt at 30 June 2025, citing the Australian National Audit Office.

A Hypothetical Example of a Data Mismatch

Hypothetical example: a café operator employs five staff, each earning $15,000 of ordinary time earnings in the September 2023 quarter, when the super guarantee rate was 11%. Super owed is $1,650 per employee, or $8,250 for the quarter.

Suppose the operator paid the full $8,250 on time, but through a related entity whose ABN differed from the one used for payroll reporting. The ATO's systems could see wages reported for five workers without matching contributions, and flag a potential shortfall for that quarter.

What Employers and Employees Can Do

For employers, advisers generally recommend not ignoring a letter. The steps commonly suggested include: