The Knockoff - Issue #6

Payday Super Is Here. Your Super Clearing House Is Gone. Your Cash Flow Is Different From Today.

From 1 July 2026, every Australian employer — sole traders with one apprentice, family businesses, anyone paying wages — must pay superannuation contributions on every single payday. Not quarterly. Every pay run. Contributions must reach the employee's super fund within 7 business days. If you've been using the ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House to handle this, it closed yesterday. You need an alternative now. [ATO]

The cash flow hit is real and it's immediate. Under the old quarterly system, a trade business with an $80,000 monthly payroll was holding roughly $9,200 in super for up to three months before it had to leave the account. That buffer is gone. Super now goes with every fortnightly pay run. Research from Employment Hero found the average Australian small business may need more than $124,000 in additional working capital to absorb the change comfortably. Fair warning: 41% of small employers still didn't fully understand the new rules at the time of the 1 July rollout. [Integrated Finance Group / Employment Hero, 2026]

The ATO's first-year approach is facilitative for employers making genuine attempts — wrong fund details, clearing house hiccups — but deliberate non-payment is treated differently from day one. If you're not across this yet, that's the thing to sort out this week, not next month. The penalty regime hasn't softened — only the approach to honest mistakes has. [Fair Work Ombudsman]

Award Wages Up 4.75% From Today — Minimum Now $26.44 an Hour

The Fair Work Commission's 2026 Annual Wage Review result takes effect from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July. That's a 4.75% lift across all modern award wages and a 6% increase in the National Minimum Wage — now $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week. For tradies on the Award, rates move automatically. But employers need to have updated payroll before the first full pay period closes, not whenever they get around to it. Check your specific award at the Fair Work website. [Fair Work Commission, 1 July 2026]

Worth noting: this lands the same week as Payday Super and new PPL entitlements. Small operators have a payroll admin squeeze right now. If it feels tight, that's because it is.

Residential Approvals Fall — But Commercial Work Is Picking Up

ABS Building Approvals data for April 2026 shows total dwelling approvals fell 3.4% to 16,710 — private sector houses down 1%, multi-dwelling down 3.6%. Residential building value dipped to $10.89 billion. Meanwhile non-residential building value jumped 29.4% to $7.75 billion in the same month. [ABS, June 2026]

The auction clearance rate sitting at roughly 47–51% nationally — lowest since April 2020 — adds context. When vendors can't sell, they're not building. But if your trade runs toward commercial, fitout, or industrial work, the non-residential side is moving. Worth knowing which way your book is weighted.

The $20,000 Write-Off Isn't Law Yet. The Default From 1 July Is $1,000.

The 2025–26 instant asset write-off at $20,000 was law, and it applied to assets first used or installed and ready for use by 30 June 2026. That's done and dusted — if you bought a tool before Tuesday and it was in use, you can claim it. No issue there. [ATO]

The problem is what comes next. The 2026–27 Budget announced on 12 May that the government would make the $20,000 threshold permanent from 1 July 2026. That's a promise, not a law. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 2) Bill 2026 still hasn't passed Parliament. Until it does, the legislated default from 1 July is $1,000. Buy a $15,000 angle grinder today, and under current law it goes into the depreciation pool at 15% in year one — you're claiming $2,250, not $15,000.

Will it pass? Almost certainly, eventually. But "almost certainly" isn't law, and Parliament is in its winter break schedule. Don't make a significant tool or equipment purchase right now on the assumption the $20,000 threshold applies — talk to your accountant first, and keep watch for when the bill actually passes. The ATO themselves are clear: this measure is not yet law. When it does pass, it'll be backdated to 1 July 2026, so nothing will be lost — but only once it actually passes.

What to do: If you have a significant asset purchase planned for this financial year, hold off or get advice before committing. Watch for the bill passing — it'll be worth flagging the moment it does. Small purchases under $1,000 are fine under either scenario.

Clint from SA sent this one in. His first-year refrigeration apprentice spent two solid hours hunting for a gas leak — thorough, methodical, not giving up. Checked every fitting twice. Went through half a bottle of leak detector. Started to seriously question whether his gauges were reading correctly.

Clint walked over, had a look, and pointed to the service valve. The system was off. They'd been testing a system that was never turned on. Fixed the actual fault in five minutes. Had a good laugh about it on the way home.

Every tradie reading this has a version of that story. The apprentice who checks everything but the obvious thing. The job where the answer was simpler than two hours of hunting suggested. It's not a failure — it's how you learn that the first question is always "is it actually on?"