Do venues have to pay super to musicians?

Yes. A venue that pays a musician to perform owes super on that fee, and it has for years. The ATO treats a performer you pay as your employee for super purposes whether or not they have an ABN, send you an invoice, or play your room once. What changed on 1 July 2026 is the deadline: the contribution now has to reach the musician's fund within 7 business days of the day you pay them. The rule is set out on the ATO page Super for sportspeople, performers, film makers and related activities, which is the source for everything on this page.

Which bookings it covers

The test is who is legally liable to pay the performer. If the venue agreed the fee with the musician and pays it, the venue owes the super. The ATO's worked examples cover the three ways a venue usually books a band:

• The venue pays each band member directly. It owes super on every fee. In the ATO's example a venue pays three members $280 each, inclusive of super, so each member receives $250 and $30 goes to each of their funds. (Example 7.)
• The venue pays one person who runs the act. It owes super on that person's fee only. In the ATO's example a pub pays Sophie $900; she engages and pays two other players herself, and she owes the super on their fees, not the pub. (Example 12.)
• The venue pays the band through one member who is acting as the group's agent, and the venue agreed to that. Then the venue owes super on every member's share. In the ATO's example the pub owes $45, $30 and $30 on shares of $420, $280 and $280. (Example 10.)

So what a venue owes depends on what was agreed, not on how many people walked on stage. A single fee to a bandleader who books their own band is one contribution. An agreement to pay the group is one contribution per member. Write down which it was when the booking is made, because reconstructing it later from a bank statement is the part that goes wrong.

Source: ATO, Super for sportspeople, performers, film makers and related activities (QC107606), examples 7, 10 and 12

When a venue owes nothing

A few situations take the venue out of it. Check them in order and record which one applied, because your books have to show why nothing was paid.

• The act invoices through a company, a trust or an incorporated association. That entity is responsible for super for its own people.
• The act is a partnership with its own ABN. The partners look after their own contributions.
• It is a genuine door deal or revenue share: the act is paid a share of the takings rather than a fee, and carries the risk of an empty room. The written arrangement has to say that in substance, not just in name. (Example 14.)
• The performer is under 18 and works 30 hours a week or less for you.

The private and domestic exclusion is not available to a venue. A pub, a club, a restaurant, a council, a festival or a community hall is an organisation, not a household, and the ATO says community groups and not-for-profits have the same obligations as businesses. There is no size threshold.

Source: ATO, Super for sportspeople, performers, film makers and related activities (QC107606)

How much, and on what

12% of the fee for the performance, with GST excluded. If the invoice itemises equipment hire, travel, accommodation or a PA the act brings, those parts are left out. If it is one lump sum with no breakdown, the whole amount counts as work, so ask for the breakdown.

Whether the fee includes super or super is paid on top is something you and the act agree, and it should be in writing before the night. Both are legal, and the difference is who is out of pocket.

Either way the super has to reach the fund. You cannot hand it to the musician instead, and an inclusive agreement does not change that.

Source: ATO, Super for sportspeople, performers, film makers and related activities (QC107606)

What a venue has to do within 7 business days

1. Get the performer's fund details before the gig: the fund's USI and their member number. The first contribution you ever make for a particular person gets 20 business days instead of 7, which is there to cover setting them up.
2. Work the due date out on the day you pay the fee, not the day of the gig and not the day the client pays you. Business days exclude weekends and public holidays counted nationally: a holiday observed in any state stops the clock for everyone.
3. Pay it through your clearing house, the same way you pay super for the bar staff. A missed deadline becomes a Super Guarantee Charge, paid to the ATO instead of the fund, with interest and an administration component added, and it is not deductible.

Sidefill does this for a venue: it works the amount and the date out per performer, collects each performer's fund details through one link, and builds the clearing house file from the ledger. It never moves the money itself.

Source: ATO, Super for sportspeople, performers, film makers and related activities (QC107606)