ALMBCAfter significant backlash and requests for clarification, the Australian Tax Office have rewritten their guidance on the topic of Super as it relates to the live music sector.
Concerns had been raised for some time, but the start of the current financial year on July 1st brought with it new payday superannuation laws.
These new laws mean that anyone who engages the services of musicians (whether it be performing, songwriting, etc.) is now required to pay them 12% superannuation within a seven day period.
Ideally, this would have been a boon for musicians, who – after being entitled to super since 1992 – would be able to actively put away a nest egg for their retirement. However, unintended impacts soon made themselves clear, with the likes of the Newcastle Hunter Jazz Festival and the Inverloch Jazz Festival cancelling their 2026 events due to flow-on effects from these new Super requirements.
The Australian Live Music Business Council (ALMBC) also conducted a member survey, receiving over 100 responses from members in response to a request for stories, information, and ideas surrounding the nascent superannuation laws.
The overall response was one that called for clarity, offered suggestions, and relayed the real-life experiences musicians, performers, venues, and organisers have had as a result of the changes.
Now, the ALMBC has announced the ATO have published a substantially rewritten version for the guidance page which relates to Super for sportspeople, performers, film makers and related activities.
The big clarification is that Super now only applies to the performance component of a payment, meaning that parts of a payment covering the likes of rehearsal studio hire, equipment hire, freight costs, and more, and outside of the Super guarantee.
Additionally, the ATO have also added a section relating to performers sharing revenue, outlining that door deals and percentage splits – a standard practice at the grassroots level – are also outside of the guarantee. Additionally, there is clarity provided in regards to the likes of booking agents, promoters, and agencies in regard to their own roles within the equation. However, the underlying laws have remained the same, with the ALMBC noting that a large downside to all of this is the fact that the ATO has expanded its list of things that do not change the obligation, with the likes of hobby forms not removing an obligation for Super to be paid.
Effectively, this notes that Super obligations remain regardless of the size or the nature of the undertaking, meaning that the likes of a "sole trader playing their first gig [by] engaging session musicians", or a "small volunteer community organisations hiring performers for a local not-for-profit arts festival" will face the same obligations as a global commercial business.
Put simply, there is still no threshold at which Super obligations begin to kick in, meaning that the lower end of the market will be feeling the pinch still.
"The ATO has listened on the practical side and that deserves acknowledgement," says ALMBC Chair, Howard Adams. "Separating the performance fee from travel, freight and backline, and confirming that genuine door deals sit outside the super guarantee, will save venues and festivals real money and real hours.
"What has not moved is the part that worries us most. A retired musician playing three gigs a year, and a volunteer committee running a community festival, are now firmly inside the same system as a national touring operation.
"ALMBC will keep pressing Treasury and the Assistant Treasurer for a legislated exemption for genuine hobby engagements and not-for-profit organisers, and for a $5,000 per engagement de minimis," Adams continues.
"Venues, festivals and agents are already telling us they will stop booking sole traders, and that is the pipeline our whole industry depends on."
The full wording of the ATO's guidance page is available via their website, while the ALMC have also provided further details about how the new changes affect Australian musicians on their own website.
