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Home > Blog > Do you have to pay your contractors super? Sometimes, the answer is yes.

Do you have to pay your contractors super? Sometimes, the answer is yes.

Date: 24 November 2025

There is a common myth that if a contractor has an ABN, you don’t need to pay them super. However, this is not always true.

First things first: if you are paying a company, trust, or partnership, you don’t need to pay super. We are just dealing with contractors who are operating as a sole trader – that is, they have an ABN in their own name.

The key things to think about are:

1. Are you paying them mainly for their labour? Think: if you are hiring someone to do excavation work, a good chunk of what you are paying for is the use of the equipment. So in this case, it is not mainly for labour and you are off the hook for super.

2. Are you paying them for a specific result? Think: you hire an office assistant to come in and do some administrative work and they charge you by the hour versus a painter you hire to paint your shop. The painter is hired to achieve a specific result (super likely not required) while the office assistant is not (you will likely need to pay them super).

3. Do they have to perform the work themselves? Think: are you expecting a specific person to turn up or can they delegate the work to someone else? If they are not able to delegate the work, you may have to pay super.

If your answer to the above questions is yes, no, and yes, you need to pay super.

This is a very tricky area and can be confusing. The ATO has a decision tool you can use to help you figure it out, and you can always reach out to us if you have any questions as well.

By Karen Lanz, Supervisor, Business Services, Glen Innes

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