Small Business Tax Calendar Australia: 2026-27 ATO Dates

The 2026-27 financial year runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, and the small business tax calendar for Australia changed shape at its first step. Super is no longer due quarterly. For wages paid from 1 July 2026, the fund has to receive the super guarantee within 7 business days after each payday. An employer still working to a 28 October super date is already late on every pay run since July, and late super means the super guarantee charge.

The second change is quieter. Three of the year’s big dates land on a weekend followed by a public holiday in Western Australia, so the real dates are 2 March, 17 May and 8 June 2027. Most published date lists still give the unadjusted ones.

Below is the whole year in one table, the four rules that move a date, and the detail by obligation. Everything assumes a 30 June year end. A business on a substituted accounting period has its own dates.

The 2026-27 tax calendar, month by month

Most small businesses meet the same handful of dates each year: BAS each quarter or month, one tax return, and for employers, payroll reporting and super. The table runs from October 2026 to the end of the 2026-27 wrap-up in August 2027, with every date already moved for weekends and public holidays.

The dates from July to September 2026 have passed: STP finalisation for 2025-26 on 14 July, the June quarter BAS and the last quarterly super payment on 28 July, and the taxable payments annual report on 28 August.

The ATO publishes the same information one month at a time in its due dates by month pages, without the weekend shifts worked through.

The four rules that move your date

Your due date is the standard date unless one of four things applies. Each one moves it, and two of them can move it by months.

1. Weekends and public holidaysA date that falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday moves to the next business day, and a holiday across any whole state counts for every business in Australia.
2. Lodging onlineQuarterly BAS lodged online by the business itself gets two extra weeks on three of the four quarters, applied automatically.
3. Using a registered agentTax returns, FBT returns and three of the four BAS quarters carry later dates when an agent lodges, provided you are on their program in time.
4. Being behindOne prior-year return outstanding at 30 June pulls this year's return back to 31 October, agent or not.

Weekends and public holidays

The ATO’s rule on lodgment dates that fall on weekends or public holidays moves the date to the next business day, and it defines a public holiday as “a public holiday for the whole of any state or territory in Australia”. A holiday in one state shifts the date for every business in the country.

In 2027 that rule moves three dates by more than a weekend. 28 February is a Sunday and 1 March is Labour Day in Western Australia, so the December quarter BAS and the self-lodged company return are due Tuesday 2 March. 15 May is a Saturday, so the main agent date for tax returns is Monday 17 May. 5 June is a Saturday and 7 June is Western Australia Day, so the 5 June concession runs to Tuesday 8 June.

Lodging online

If you receive and lodge your quarterly BAS online, you get two more weeks for the July to September, January to March and April to June quarters. The later date appears on the statement by itself. The October to December quarter gets nothing extra because its 28 February date already carries a one-month extension. Monthly statements and quarterly instalment notices are excluded, so a sole trader who pays from a GST or PAYG instalment notice keeps the 28th.

Using a registered agent

A registered tax agent’s lodgement program gives later dates for income tax (most clients 17 May 2027), FBT (25 June 2027) and BAS (25 November 2026, 26 May 2027 and 25 August 2027). The ATO’s wording on getting onto the program is that a first-time or changing client “should contact them before 31 October”. For BAS there is a second condition: the later date applies to a statement that generates after your previous one was lodged electronically, so a first statement, or one after a paper lodgement, may carry the earlier date.

Being behind

If any earlier return was still outstanding at 30 June 2026, this year’s return is due 31 October 2026 for every structure, through an agent or not. The agent program does not rescue a business that is already behind, which is why catching up the old years comes first. The steps for that are in the guide to catching up when you haven’t lodged in years.

Tax returns by business structure

Your structure sets your tax return date, and so does who lodges it. Sole traders, partnerships and trusts lodging themselves are due 2 November 2026. A company lodging itself is due 2 March 2027. Through an agent, most of all four are due 17 May 2027.

The self-lodged dates come from the ATO’s October and February due-date pages: the October page lists “individual, partnership and trust income tax returns” for 31 October, and the February page lists “self-preparing entities that were not due at an earlier date” for 28 February, which is where a self-lodging company sits. The agent dates for companies come from the ATO’s agent lodgment program for companies. Large and medium trusts and companies have their own dates in January and February.

The 5 June concession sits on top of the 15 May date. Individuals, partnerships and trusts can lodge by 5 June without a late lodgement penalty if they also pay any tax owing by then. Companies get it only where both the prior year and the current year are non-taxable or in refund. The ATO is explicit that this is a concession, not a due date, and in 2027 it runs to Tuesday 8 June.

A company that has stopped trading still has a return to lodge each year, on the same dates as any other company. The dormant company obligations set out what that involves. How the agent extension works in practice, including who misses out, is covered in the guide to tax return deadlines in Australia.

Paying is a separate date

For BAS, the lodge date and the pay date are the same. For income tax they split. A company on the 15 May agent date pays on the same day, 17 May 2027. Individuals and trusts on the 15 May program pay on a staggered date set by when they lodge: 21 March, 21 April or 5 June 2027, as the latest possible dates, and the notice of assessment shows the actual one. On any other lodgement date, tax is payable 21 days after the due date, or 21 days after the notice of assessment is treated as received if that is later.

BAS and activity statements

A quarterly BAS is due on the 28th of the month after each quarter, except the October to December quarter, which is due 2 March 2027. A monthly BAS is due on the 21st of the following month. Lodging and paying share one date, and the date is printed on the statement.

You lodge quarterly if your GST turnover is under $20 million and the ATO hasn’t told you to report monthly. Monthly is compulsory from $20 million and a choice below it. Monthly statements get no online or agent extension, with one exception: an agent lodging electronically for a business with turnover up to $10 million has until 21 February for the December statement, which in 2027 is Monday 22 February. Lodging the December statement yourself, the date is 21 January.

Anyone registered for GST lodges a BAS, even with nothing to report, in which case it goes in as nil by the due date. What goes on the statement and how the labels work are in the guide to what a BAS is, and the full list of BAS due dates for 2026-27 carries the conditions on each concession. If you would rather hand the statements over, ReturnTax’s BAS lodgement service is $150 a statement, $250 with payroll.

PAYG instalments

PAYG instalments are prepayments of the year’s income tax, and quarterly instalments are due on the same dates as the quarterly BAS. If the ATO bills you once a year instead, the annual instalment notice is due 21 October 2026. What you pay during the year is credited against the tax on your return, and any excess is refunded.

Super after Payday Super

There are no quarterly super due dates for wages paid from 1 July 2026. Under the ATO’s Payday Super payment deadlines, a contribution is on time if it is “received by your employee’s super fund” within 7 business days after you pay the employee.

Received means received, not sent. A clearing house, including one built into payroll software, takes time to process, and the ATO says to allow for it, which is why its own advice is to pay super on payday. Business days exclude weekends and any public holiday across a whole state, so the count works the same way as the lodgement rule above.

A few situations get longer. The first contribution for a new employee, or to a new fund for an existing one, has 20 business days. The ATO can also declare exceptional circumstances, such as a natural disaster, that give affected employers 20 business days. The rule covers everyone entitled to the super guarantee, including contractors paid mainly for their labour and company directors. The rate for 2026-27 is 12% of qualifying earnings.

The last quarterly date was 28 July 2026, for April to June 2026. Super for that quarter that went in late needed a super guarantee charge statement by 28 August 2026. From here, super leaves the calendar and becomes part of every pay run.

Payroll reporting, FBT and the TPAR

These three are annual, and each one applies only to some businesses.

STP finalisation

Employers using Single Touch Payroll make an end-of-year finalisation declaration by 14 July. For 2026-27 that is Wednesday 14 July 2027. Payments not reported through STP still need payment summaries issued to the workers by the same date.

FBT

An employer who provided fringe benefits lodges and pays the FBT return by 21 May 2027 if they prepare it themselves or their agent lodges on paper. Through a registered agent lodging electronically, the date is 25 June 2027, as long as the agent has been appointed for FBT and has added you to their FBT client list by 21 May. A company ute or car that a director or employee also drives privately counts, unless it meets the exemption for eligible vehicles with limited private use.

Taxable payments annual report

A business that pays contractors in an industry the ATO lists, including building and construction and courier services, lodges a taxable payments annual report by 28 August each year. 28 August 2027 is a Saturday, so the 2026-27 report is due Monday 30 August 2027.

Payroll tax

Payroll tax is a state tax with state thresholds and state due dates, set by your state revenue office rather than the ATO, so it sits outside this calendar.

If you miss a date

The ATO warns you before applying a failure to lodge penalty. When it does apply, the failure to lodge on time penalty is one penalty unit, $364 from 1 July 2026, for each 28 days or part of 28 days late, up to five units for individuals and small withholders. Larger businesses pay a multiple of that. Tax paid late also attracts general interest charge, worked out daily and compounding.

If you lodge yourself and know a date will be missed, the ATO’s guidance is to phone 13 28 66 and ask for more time before the due date, not after. Late super is more expensive than late lodgement: the super guarantee charge costs more than the super would have, and while the charge itself is deductible from 1 July 2026, the penalties and interest added after an SGC assessment are not. What a missed tax return leads to, step by step, is set out in what happens if you don’t lodge a tax return.

Getting onto an agent’s dates

The biggest change a small business can make to this calendar is moving from the self-lodger dates to an agent’s. For a sole trader that is six and a half months, from 2 November 2026 to 17 May 2027, provided the earlier years are lodged and you are on the agent’s books before 31 October. The agent’s fee is also generally deductible in the income year you pay it.