Superannuation Guarantee Calculator

An ABN does not decide it; the contract does

Under section 12(3) of the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992, a person working under a contract that is wholly or principally for their personal labour is an employee for superannuation purposes, whether or not they hold an ABN.

This catches medical practices constantly. A GP engaged under a service arrangement, working set sessions, using the practice's rooms, equipment, reception and billing systems, and seeing the practice's patients is very likely an employee for super purposes whatever the contract calls them.

The test is not what the contract says the parties are. It is what the arrangement actually looks like: whose patients, whose equipment, whose hours, and whether the person is in business on their own account or working in yours.

Only the labour component counts

Where super does apply to a contractor, it is calculated on the labour portion of the contract, not the whole amount invoiced. If the contract bundles rooms, equipment, nursing support and billing services, only the part that is payment for personal work counts as ordinary time earnings.

Practices frequently overpay by running super across an entire facility fee. If the agreement separately identifies the components, use them. If it does not, you need a defensible apportionment; this is worth raising with your accountant before it is raised with you.

The contribution base cap

Super is only required on ordinary time earnings up to the maximum contribution base. Earnings above that ceiling do not attract super, which for a high-earning practitioner is the difference between a correct calculation and a significant overpayment.

For 2026-27 the cap is $270,830 a year, and it is now an annual figure rather than a quarterly one. Payday Super, which began on 1 July 2026, replaced the quarterly cycle, and the cap moved with it. Before that year it was set per quarter: $62,500 in 2025-26 and $65,070 in 2024-25.

Those two earlier figures are worth looking at together, because the cap went DOWN. It is set so that the super rate multiplied by the cap equals the concessional contributions cap, so when the super rate rose from 11.5% to 12% on 1 July 2025, the base had to fall to keep the two in step. A cap that falls is not an error and it is not a cut to anyone's super; it is the arithmetic of holding the contribution ceiling constant while the rate rises.

Payday Super changes the timing, not the amount

From 1 July 2026 super must be paid at the same time as the wages it relates to, rather than quarterly. For a practice that has always funded super quarterly, that is a cash-flow change rather than a cost change: the same amount leaves the business, sooner and in smaller instalments.

The compliance consequence is larger than the cash-flow one. A quarterly cycle gave a practice a window to catch and correct a missed payment before the deadline; payday timing removes it, so an error in a pay run becomes a late contribution almost immediately.

It also means the super guarantee charge, which is what applies when contributions are late, is now reachable from a much smaller mistake.

Paying late costs more than paying

Underpaid or late super attracts the super guarantee charge, which is calculated on the shortfall plus interest and an administration fee, and is not deductible. The effective cost of getting this wrong is considerably higher than the contribution itself.

If this calculator shows a shortfall, treat it as urgent rather than as a rounding difference.

Dental practices: the associate on a fee-for-service split

The standard dental associate agreement pays a percentage of billings, commonly somewhere around 40 to 45% to the practice and the rest to the associate, who holds an ABN and invoices the practice for their share. That invoicing has led plenty of practices to treat the associate as a contractor for every purpose, including super. Section 12(3) does not care what the invoice looks like. It looks at whether the associate is supplying personal labour under the practice's roof, using the practice's chair, nurse, sterilisation and booking system, seeing patients the practice's reception scheduled. On those facts the associate is very likely an employee for superannuation purposes regardless of the ABN.

Because the arrangement is pure labour with no separately identified equipment or facility charge built into the associate's invoice, the whole of the associate's share is ordinary time earnings. A $30,000 month split 45/55 means the practice keeps $13,500 for the use of its rooms and support staff, and super is calculated on the associate's $16,500, not on the $30,000 gross billings and not reduced any further. The practice's cut is the fee for the infrastructure, not a deduction from the associate's earnings for super purposes.

Compare that with a dentist who leases a chair for a flat weekly fee set independently of billings, sets their own hours, books their own patients and employs their own nurse. Same building, same equipment, a genuinely different arrangement, and one much more likely to be an independent business rather than an employment relationship for super. The label on the agreement matters far less than which of these two pictures it actually describes.

Physiotherapy: the sessional locum and the delegation test

A physiotherapist engaged for set weekly clinic sessions, paid a session or hourly rate, using the clinic's rooms, plinths and equipment and following its scheduling, is very likely an employee for super purposes under section 12(3), whether or not they invoice through an ABN. The contract is for their personal labour, and being paid per session rather than a salary does not change that.

Put a number on it: two full clinic days a week, eight hours a day, at a $90 hourly session rate with no separate equipment or facility charge identified anywhere in the agreement, across a 46-week working year. That is $1,440 a week and $66,240 across the year, and because the whole rate is payment for personal labour delivered on the clinic's equipment and booking system, the whole $66,240 is ordinary time earnings. Super at 12% for 2026-27 comes to $7,948.80.

Physiotherapy is also where the delegation point in the ATO's ruling on section 12(3), TR 2023/4, does real work, because locum cover between practitioners is common in this profession. A genuine, unrestricted contractual right to send another qualified physiotherapist in their place carries significant weight in the ATO's analysis, and a clause that exists on paper but is never actually used will not do it; the right has to be real and exercisable, not decorative.

Compare that with a physiotherapist who works across three or four practices and gyms in the same week, sets their own rate with each, brings their own portable equipment to home and workplace visits and carries their own professional indemnity cover independent of any clinic. That pattern, common in sports and workplace physiotherapy, looks like a genuine business operating on its own account rather than personal labour supplied to one practice.

Psychology: the fee-split associate and the telehealth question

A psychologist seeing clients in the practice's consulting rooms, booked through the practice's intake system and paid a percentage of the session fee, is very likely an employee for super purposes under section 12(3) for the same reason as a dental associate. The percentage does not change the analysis: where no part of the psychologist's share is a separately identified facility or admin fee, the whole share is personal labour.

Put a number on it: a $200 session fee split 65/35 to the psychologist, 20 sessions a week and a 46-week working year. That is $130 a session, $2,600 a week and $119,600 across the year, all of it ordinary time earnings because nothing in the split is identified as a facility or admin charge. Super at 12% for 2026-27 comes to $14,352, owed on the psychologist's share, not the practice's.

A psychologist who works entirely by telehealth, provides their own laptop, software subscription and private consulting space at home, sets their own session length and fee and takes referrals from several practices and directly from clients in the same month looks different: a business conducted on their own account rather than labour supplied into one practice. Being paid per session is common to both pictures; what separates them is whose systems, whose room and whose diary the work actually runs on.

Podiatry: the difference a mobile arrangement makes

A podiatrist working from a clinic's own consulting room, seeing patients the clinic's reception booked, using the clinic's plant and equipment and paid a session or per-consultation rate, is very likely an employee for super purposes under section 12(3) even when they invoice through an ABN. Being paid per consultation rather than a salary does not change the analysis; the contract is still principally for personal labour delivered inside someone else's practice.

Put a number on it: three consultation days a week at $120 a session, no separate equipment or facility fee identified anywhere in the arrangement, and an average of 18 consultations a week across a 52-week year. That is $2,160 a week and $112,320 across the year, and because the whole rate is payment for personal labour delivered on the clinic's equipment and booking system, the whole $112,320 is ordinary time earnings. Super at 12% for 2026-27 comes to $13,478.40, owed on top of the consultation fees already paid, not netted against them.

A genuinely mobile podiatrist tells a different story. Visiting aged care facilities and private homes with their own vehicle and portable kit, setting their own diary, invoicing several facilities and practices in the same month and bearing the cost of their own equipment and travel looks much more like a business operating on its own account. A residential aged care provider that engages a podiatrist on those terms for a fortnightly visiting round is unlikely to owe super on what it pays them.

It is not the word mobile that does the work here. A podiatrist who visits several sites but works exclusively for one clinic, uses that clinic's equipment left on-site and follows its scheduling and pricing, has not escaped section 12(3) just by travelling between rooms. What matters is the same set of factors as always: whose equipment, whose diary, whose patients and who carries the commercial risk if a booking falls through.

Optometry: the practice equipment that decides it

An optometrist engaged to cover clinic sessions in an independent optical practice, testing patients on the practice's phoropter, autorefractor and OCT scanner, and paid a day or session rate, is very likely an employee for super purposes under section 12(3), regardless of the ABN they invoice through. Optometry makes the equipment factor unusually stark: the diagnostic equipment behind a standard eye test can run into six figures, and an optometrist who has not supplied it themselves has not stepped outside the practice's business merely by holding a qualification and an ABN.

Put a number on it: two testing days a week at a $650 day rate, no separate equipment or facility fee identified anywhere in the agreement, across a 46-week working year. That is $1,300 a week and $59,800 across the year, and because the whole rate is payment for personal labour delivered on the practice's equipment and booking system, the whole $59,800 is ordinary time earnings. Super at 12% for 2026-27 comes to $7,176.

A genuinely independent optometrist looks different: providing outreach eye tests to residential aged care facilities or remote communities with their own portable equipment, such as a portable autorefractor and trial lens set, setting their own fees and visiting schedule, and invoicing several facilities and health services in the same month. A rural health service that engages an optometrist on those terms for a quarterly visiting clinic is unlikely to owe super on what it pays them. What decides it is the same as for every other profession here: whose equipment, whose diary, and who carries the commercial risk if a clinic session is cancelled.

What this calculator does not do

It does not determine whether a particular arrangement creates an employment relationship; that is a question about the whole arrangement, and it is the one most likely to be disputed.

It applies a flat rate across the year and does not handle mid-year rate changes or quarterly timing differences.

Where a contractor cohort is large enough that the answer represents real money, get the classification reviewed properly. A retrospective assessment across several practitioners is a much larger problem than the cost of advice.