What changed for Australian businesses on 1 July 2026 — the 6 things small business owners need to know

Why 1 July 2026 matters

1 July is always a busy day for Australian businesses — new financial year, new tax settings, new wage rates. But 1 July 2026 is unusually heavy. A stack of long-flagged reforms all switch on at once: payday super, the Fair Work Commission's annual wage rise, ASIC's yearly fee indexation, the second tranche of anti-money laundering reforms, and the ACCC's refreshed compliance priorities.

If you employ people, sell services, take payments or make marketing claims, at least one of these will touch your business. This guide picks the six that matter most to small business owners and points you to the primary source for each. It is general guidance, not legal, tax or financial advice.

1. Payday super — you now pay SG on every payday

From 1 July 2026, employers must pay super guarantee (SG) contributions at the same time as salary and wages, not quarterly. The change applies to ordinary time earnings paid on or after that date.¹

The new rule is that SG contributions must be received by the employee's fund within 7 business days of payday. Miss that window and the updated SG charge kicks in — the shortfall, an interest component calculated from payday, and an administrative uplift. The old quarterly SG charge framework is being replaced.¹²

Practical steps for a small business:

• Confirm your payroll or accounting software is payday-super ready — most mainstream providers pushed updates in the first half of 2026.
• Make sure your default fund and every employee's chosen fund can receive contributions via SuperStream on your pay cycle.
• Plan cashflow for more frequent SG payments — the money leaves the business every pay run instead of once a quarter.
• Review your process for onboarding new employees and using the ATO's stapled super fund lookup, since delays there now cause SG charge exposure much faster.

Note the SG rate itself did not change on 1 July 2026. It reached its legislated maximum of 12% on 1 July 2025 and stays there.³

2. National Minimum Wage and award rates go up

The Fair Work Commission hands down its Annual Wage Review decision each June, and the new National Minimum Wage and modern award minimum rates take effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July.⁴

For small businesses, the practical actions are the same each year:

• Identify which modern award covers each role — the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool is the official source.
• Update pay rates, casual loadings, penalty rates and allowances from the first full pay period on or after 1 July.
• Check that any annualised salary or common-law contract still passes the better-off-overall test against the new award rates.
• Update employee records and payslips so the new base rate is visible.

Underpayment is the most common compliance failure the FWO acts on, and wage underpayment can now attract criminal penalties for intentional conduct under the Closing Loopholes reforms — a separate reason to get the annual increase right.⁵

3. ASIC fees rise with indexation

ASIC's fees for company registration, annual review, business name renewal and most regulatory lodgements are indexed to CPI and updated on 1 July each year. The current fee schedule is published on ASIC's website and applies to any lodgement made on or after that date.⁶

For a small Pty Ltd company the annual review fee is the one you'll notice most. Budget the new amount, and check the fee that applies at the time of lodgement rather than assuming last year's number — ASIC calculates the fee at the date the form is received.

4. AML/CTF 'tranche 2' — the regime expands beyond banks

Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regime historically covered banks, remittance providers, casinos and bullion dealers. The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024extends it to a much broader set of professions — commonly called "tranche 2": real estate professionals, lawyers, conveyancers, accountants, trust and company service providers, and dealers in precious metals and stones.⁷

Tranche 2 obligations commence on 1 July 2026 for enrolment and related preparatory duties, with full customer due diligence and reporting obligations phasing in shortly after. If you are in a tranche 2 profession and provide any designated service, you'll need to:⁷⁸

• Enrol with AUSTRAC and, where relevant, register a reporting group.
• Adopt a written AML/CTF program that covers your money-laundering and terrorism-financing risk assessment, customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring, and staff training.
• Verify customer identity before or during the designated service.
• Report suspicious matters, threshold transactions and international transfers to AUSTRAC on the required timelines.

This is a substantial compliance uplift for firms that have never dealt with AUSTRAC before. Start with AUSTRAC's small-business guidance for your sector and, if in doubt, get advice.

5. ACCC compliance and enforcement priorities — refreshed for 2026–27

The ACCC publishes its Compliance and Enforcement Priorities each financial year, usually in a set-piece speech in late February or early March. The priorities set in early 2026 for the 2026–27 year take effect around the 1 July financial-year boundary and signal which industries and conduct types the regulator will focus its resources on.⁹

Misleading environmental and sustainability claims have been on the ACCC's priorities list every year since 2022–23 and remained on the 2025–26 list. The regulator's December 2023 guidance, Making environmental claims: A guide for business, is still the reference document.¹⁰¹¹

If your website, packaging or social media uses words like "eco-friendly", "sustainable", "carbon neutral", "recyclable" or "plastic-free", 1 July is a natural checkpoint. A short internal audit against the ACCC's eight principles catches the most common risks before a customer, competitor or the regulator does. See our eco-friendly and sustainable claims checklist and carbon neutral claims guide for practical rewrites.

6. Small business tax settings for 2026–27

A few tax settings also reset on 1 July. Check the ATO's published rates for the new financial year before setting budgets or making capital purchases:¹²

• Income tax thresholds and tax tables — the Stage 3 tax cuts that took effect on 1 July 2024 continue, with tax tables updated for indexation where relevant.
• Instant asset write-off — the threshold for small business immediate deductions is set by legislation and can change each year. Confirm the current threshold on the ATO's small business page before relying on it.
• Concessional and non-concessional super contribution caps — set by the ATO based on average weekly ordinary time earnings and updated as indexation triggers apply.

A short 1 July checklist for small business owners

1. Confirm payroll is payday-super compliant and cashflow is planned for it.
2. Apply the new National Minimum Wage and award rates from the first full pay period on or after 1 July.
3. Update your ASIC fee assumptions for the new financial year.
4. If you're in a tranche 2 profession, start your AUSTRAC enrolment and AML/CTF program now.
5. Refresh your marketing and environmental claims against the ACCC's guidance.
6. Check ATO rates and thresholds for 2026–27 before setting your budget.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

1 July 2026 stacks up more compliance change than most financial years. None of it is a surprise — every item on this list has been publicly consulted on and legislated well in advance — but the volume is the point. Working through the short checklist above, section by section, will get most small businesses cleanly onto the new settings without a last-minute scramble.