The Closing of the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House

The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) is a free service provided by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) that allows eligible small employers to make a single payment for all their employees' superannuation contributions. The Clearing House will cease operations on July 1, 2026, and it will not be possible for a new employer to register after September 30, 2025.

The closure of the SBSCH is because it will no longer be required once the "PayDay" superannuation contributions reforms are in place, with an intended start date of July 1, 2026. The PayDay reforms will require employers to make compulsory superannuation contributions when they pay salary, rather than under the current system where contributions are made quarterly in arrears. Employers currently registered with and using the Clearing House will need to find alternative suppliers of clearing house or contribution services, such as commercial clearing houses or payroll software providers. The closure will have little to no impact on superannuation funds, as contributions will still be made through the SuperStream system.

A primary attraction of the Clearing House was that it was a free online service, where an employer only had to make one payment, and the ATO would then allocate the payment to the various superannuation funds according to the employer's instructions. To be eligible to register, an employer could only have less than 20 employees or an annual aggregated turnover of less than $10 million.

Another key benefit is that the Clearing House is an “approved clearing house”. As a result, for the purposes of determining if an employer is liable for a superannuation guarantee charge, the date of payment to the Clearing House is treated as the date of payment to the relevant superannuation fund. This deeming, however, does not apply to the timing of the tax deduction for the employer's contribution. An employer is only entitled to a tax deduction for the 2025/26 income year if the contribution is received by the relevant superannuation fund during that income year. The ATO will, generally, not devote compliance resources to determine minor mismatches between the two dates and will generally accept that if the contribution was received by the Clearing House during the 2025/26 income year, it was also received by the super fund during the same income year. Consequently, an employer could claim a tax deduction without having to verify that the superannuation fund received the contribution during that income year.

Source: Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is closing! | SUPERCentral

 

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