Every producer who writes a TVC budget gets this wrong at least once — usually on their first shoot, sometimes on their tenth. Super is not a deduction from the performer's fee. It is an employer cost layered on top of the fee. The Super Guarantee rate for FY25-26 is 12%, and the producer carries it separately from everything else in the talent stack.

Where the 12% comes from

The Super Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 is the statutory instrument that makes employer super mandatory in Australia. It sets the minimum percentage of ordinary time earnings an employer must contribute to a complying superannuation fund on behalf of every eligible worker. The rate has stepped up over several financial years and landed at 12% for FY25-26. Performers engaged on a TVC shoot are generally treated as employees for super purposes under the expanded definition in the Act, even where the deal is booked through an agency or run through an employer of record.

Super Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992: employer super for FY25-26 is 12% of the performer's ordinary time earnings, paid on top of gross — not deducted from it.

On top, not deducted — the math that matters

The producer's mental model should be: the performer's gross fee is the performer's gross fee, and super is a separate line item the production pays to the fund. A worked example makes this concrete.

Say a principal performer is booked at a $1,000 day rate. Employer super at 12% is $120. The producer's total cost before workers comp, agency commission and payroll tax is $1,120. The performer's gross for PAYG purposes is still $1,000 — not $880. The $120 super does not touch the performer's hand; it goes directly to the fund.

  • Performer gross fee: $1,000
  • Employer super (12%): $120
  • Total employer talent cost (super line only): $1,120
  • Performer's taxable gross for PAYG: $1,000

Scale that across a multi-performer shoot with a principal, a pair of featured extras at the $1,500 CGA floor, and a block of extras, and the 12% is no longer a rounding error — it is a real budget line.

Why under-budgeting the 12% is the classic producer error

Producers slip on this in two ways. First, they quote the performer fee to a client without the super layer, then discover the employer obligation on invoice. Second, they assume an agency's commission line covers super — it does not. Agency commission is a separate invoice charge on the performer fee. Super is a statutory employer contribution that has to land with the fund, irrespective of whether the agency invoices.

The safe rule: every performer line in the budget carries a super-on-top figure at 12%. Every voiceover line does the same. The project cost builder surfaces the super column next to the performer column so the two never collapse into one number.

How super interacts with the rest of the stack

Super sits inside a wider stack of employer costs and performer deductions. Each one attaches at a different point, and mixing them up is where budgets break.

PAYG withholding

PAYG withholding comes off the performer's gross fee under the ATO PAYG Schedule 3 FY 2025-26 (or a 20% voluntary flat many performer agents run as practical default). Super is not taxed at the performer's hand at the point of contribution — it goes to the fund pre-tax from the employer side. The performer's PAYG is calculated on the $1,000 gross, not the $1,120 employer total.

Agency commission

Agency commission — typically 10% or 20% + GST, depending on deal type — is charged on the performer's gross fee, not on the super component. A 20% commission on a $1,000 gross is $200 + GST on the agency invoice. The super figure is a separate producer obligation and does not feed the commission base.

Workers compensation and payroll tax

State workers compensation premiums are calculated on the performer's gross wages per the shoot state's FY25-26 scheme. Super is treated differently state by state — in several jurisdictions it sits inside the wages definition for workers comp and payroll tax, and in others it does not. Payroll tax thresholds and rates differ state by state and reset each financial year. The safe default is to check the shoot state's current rulings rather than generalising.

Running the performer's take-home

Because super never touches the performer's hand at the point of payment, it does not show up in the take-home arithmetic. What shows up is gross fee, PAYG withholding, Medicare and any agent commission the performer has agreed to wear out of net. The take-home calculator runs the full gross-to-net on the performer's side, and the project cost builder runs the producer's side with super and workers comp surfaced as separate lines.

What's changing on 1 July 2026

The 12% rate is not moving. What is moving is the cadence. From 1 July 2026, employer super has to be paid at payday rather than quarterly, with a seven-day fund-receipt window. That has real implications for short-cycle TVC payroll where shoots wrap in a single day and a performer is paid inside a week. Full walk-through in the Payday Super guide.

Reference only — individual producer tax and super obligations turn on the specific deal structure and the shoot state, and should be confirmed with the production accountant or a registered tax agent.