Super in the Screen Industry is Complicated – Here is Why
Superannuation is straightforward when you have a stable workforce of full-time employees who show up every day. But that is not how film and TV productions work. A typical production might engage 80-120 crew members across a 6-8 week shoot. Some are employees on short-term contracts. Some are contractors operating through their own ABN. Some are labour hire workers supplied by a crewing agency. And a handful might be working through loan-out companies.
Each of those arrangements has different superannuation obligations, and getting them wrong can result in penalties from the ATO, unexpected liabilities for the production company, and crew members who miss out on their entitlements.
At Count Out Loud, we handle super compliance for production companies as part of our production accounting service. Here is what every producer and production manager needs to understand.
When Does Super Apply to Short-Term Production Contractors?
This is the question we get asked most often, and the answer catches many producers off guard.
Under the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rules, you must pay super for a worker if they are an employee for SG purposes – regardless of how short the engagement is. There is no minimum period. A grip hired for a single day of pickup shots is entitled to super if they are engaged as an employee.
But it goes further than that. Since 1 July 2022, the old $450 per month earnings threshold was removed entirely. This means super is payable from the first dollar earned, on every engagement, no matter how small.
For production companies, this means:
- A background extra hired for one day at $250 is entitled to super
- A casual crew member working a three-day pickup shoot is entitled to super
- A stand-in hired for two weeks of rehearsal and shooting is entitled to super
The only exception is if the worker is genuinely an independent contractor for SG purposes – and as we will explain below, the ATO takes a very specific view of what that means in the screen industry.
Contractor vs Employee: The Key ATO Tests for Film and TV
The distinction between contractor and employee is one of the highest-risk compliance areas for production companies. The ATO does not simply accept that someone is a contractor because they have an ABN and issue invoices. They look at the substance of the working relationship, and in the screen industry, most crew engagements look a lot more like employment than contracting.
The Multi-Factor Test
Following the High Court decisions in Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union v Personnel Contracting Pty Ltd (2022) and ZG Operations Australia Pty Ltd v Jamsek (2022), the ATO now focuses primarily on the terms of the contract. However, several practical factors still matter:
- Control – Does the production dictate when, where, and how the work is performed? On a film set, the answer is almost always yes. Call times, shooting schedules, and creative direction are all set by the production.
- Equipment – Does the worker provide their own tools and equipment? A camera operator who brings their own camera package is more likely to be a contractor. A grip using production-supplied equipment is more likely an employee.
- Delegation – Can the worker send a substitute? On a film set, crew members are typically engaged for their specific skills and cannot send a replacement without the production’s approval.
- Risk – Does the worker bear financial risk? An employee gets paid their rate regardless. A contractor who quotes a fixed price for a deliverable bears the risk of it taking longer than expected.
- Integration – Is the worker part of the production’s business? Most crew members are deeply integrated into the production – they work on the production’s premises (set/location), under the production’s schedule, alongside other workers engaged by the production.
What This Means in Practice
For the vast majority of crew positions on a standard Australian production, the ATO’s view is that they are employees for SG purposes, even when they are engaged through their own ABN. This includes:
- Department heads (DOP, production designer, costume designer, etc.)
- All below-the-line crew working on set under the production’s direction
- Post-production staff working in the production’s facilities or on their schedule
The positions most likely to be genuinely contracting arrangements are:
- Post-production facilities billing for completed services (e.g., a VFX house delivering a package of shots)
- Above-the-line talent working through properly structured loan-out companies
- Specialist suppliers providing equipment with an operator as part of a broader service
If you are unsure about a specific engagement, it is worth getting advice. The penalties for getting it wrong are significant – the SG charge includes the unpaid super, plus interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge rate and an administrative uplift amount. From 1 July 2026 the SG charge is tax deductible (it was not under the old quarterly system), but it is now assessed by the ATO rather than self-assessed on a statement you lodge, so it is no longer something you can quietly put right yourself.
The Current Super Guarantee Rate
As of 1 July 2025, the superannuation guarantee rate is 12% – the final step in the gradual increase from 9.5% that began in 2021. From 1 July 2026, that 12% is calculated on qualifying earnings (QE) rather than ordinary time earnings (OTE). Qualifying earnings bring OTE together with all commissions, salary sacrifice contributions and other amounts that previously counted as salary or wages for super purposes, so for most crew the base is wider than it used to be. The 12% rate itself has not changed, and neither has who you pay super for.
For production companies, this means budgeting 12% on top of all crew rates for employees and deemed employees. On a production with a $1M crew budget, that is $120,000 in super that needs to be built into the budget from the outset.
Key dates to remember:
- Payday deadlines – from 1 July 2026, super must be received by the worker’s fund within 7 business days of each payday. The old quarterly deadlines (28 October, 28 January, 28 April, 28 July) applied only to pay periods up to 30 June 2026
- Short productions and frequent pay runs – every pay run now carries its own super deadline, so a shoot paying crew weekly has a super obligation falling due weekly rather than one payment after the quarter closes
- Maximum contribution base – this is now an annual cap of $270,830 for 2026-27, replacing the quarterly $62,500 cap that applied up to 30 June 2026. You do not have to pay SG on earnings above the cap
STP Reporting for Production Companies with Rotating Crews
Single Touch Payroll (STP) Phase 2 requires employers to report detailed payroll information to the ATO every time they run payroll. For production companies with constantly changing crew rosters, this creates some unique challenges.
Onboarding at Speed
When a new crew member starts on a Monday, you need their TFN declaration, super choice form, and bank details before you can process their first payment and report it correctly through STP. On a busy production, the production coordinator might be onboarding 20-30 new crew members in a single week.
We recommend using digital onboarding tools that feed directly into your payroll system. This eliminates paper forms, reduces data entry errors, and ensures STP reporting is correct from the first pay run.
Disaggregated Reporting
STP Phase 2 requires disaggregated reporting of gross amounts – separating out regular pay, overtime, allowances, leave payments, and other components. For productions paying crew under various award and enterprise agreement structures, this means your payroll system needs to correctly categorise each payment component.
Common components on a production payroll include:
- Base rate (regular hours)
- Overtime and penalty rates
- Meal allowances and living away from home allowances
- Travel allowances
- Kit hire (which is not salary and should not be reported as such)
- Termination payments and unused leave payouts
Closely Held Payees
Production company directors and shareholders who take a salary are classified as closely held payees under STP. These individuals can be reported quarterly rather than with each pay run – a useful concession for small production companies where the director is also a working producer.
Common Super Compliance Mistakes in Productions
Based on our experience working with production companies across Australia, here are the five most common super compliance issues we encounter.
1. Treating All Crew as Contractors
This is the biggest and most costly mistake. Some production companies engage all crew via ABN invoices and assume this means no super obligation. As outlined above, the ATO looks at the substance of the arrangement, not the paperwork. A production that has been treating employees as contractors can face retrospective SG charge assessments going back years.
2. Missing the Payment Deadline
Super must be received by the fund within 7 business days of payday, not just initiated within that window. If you pay crew on a Friday and your clearing house takes three business days to distribute the contribution, you have used most of the window before the money moves. Late contributions trigger the Superannuation Guarantee Charge, which the ATO now assesses itself.
On a production paying crew weekly or fortnightly, this is the single biggest practical change: super has to be processed with every pay run, so it needs to be part of the payroll routine rather than a quarterly task someone remembers late.
3. Not Offering Choice of Fund
Employers must offer eligible employees a choice of super fund. If a crew member does not nominate a fund, you must pay into a stapled super fund (the fund linked to the worker via their TFN). If there is no stapled fund, you pay into your default fund. Failing to offer choice or check for a stapled fund is a compliance breach.
For productions with large crews, this means checking for stapled funds for every new engagement – which can be done through the ATO’s online services for employers.
4. Excluding Short Engagements
Since the $450 monthly threshold was removed in July 2022, there is no minimum earnings amount for SG purposes. We still encounter production companies that assume a crew member earning under $450 in a month does not need super. Every dollar of qualifying earnings is now subject to SG.
5. Incorrect Qualifying Earnings Calculations
Not all payments to crew are qualifying earnings. Kit hire payments, for example, are a reimbursement for the use of personal equipment and should not have super calculated on them. Overtime and some allowances may or may not fall inside qualifying earnings depending on the relevant award or agreement. Note that from 1 July 2026 the base is wider than the old OTE test, so calculations built before then are worth re-checking. Getting these calculations wrong in either direction creates compliance issues.
How Count Out Loud Manages Super for Productions
We handle superannuation compliance as an integrated part of our production accounting service. This includes:
- Crew classification – we assess each engagement to determine the correct employee/contractor status for SG purposes
- Super budgeting – we ensure super is correctly budgeted at 12% across all eligible crew positions
- Payroll processing – we process payroll through Xero with correct STP reporting and super calculations
- Stapled fund checks – we check for stapled funds for every new crew member via the ATO portal
- Quarterly payments – we process super payments well ahead of each deadline and confirm receipt
- Year-end reporting – we finalise STP reports and prepare payment summaries
Our team has processed payroll for productions with crew rosters ranging from 10 to 150+ people, and we understand the time pressures and complexity involved.
Get Your Production’s Super Right
Super compliance on a production is not something you want to sort out after the fact. Retrospective SG charge assessments are expensive, disruptive, and entirely avoidable with proper systems and advice from the start.
Contact Count Out Loud to discuss superannuation compliance for your next production. Call us on (02) 9043 1525 or book a consultation through our website. We will make sure your crew gets what they are entitled to, and your production stays on the right side of the ATO.