ALMBC Leads Development of National Industry Response

The ALMBC led a gathering of dozens of music industry leaders on Thursday 8 October, following an almost 300 person gathering to discuss superannuation on 29 September.

The ALMBC presented the finding of the two recent major national surveys including:

• Treating sole trader musicians as sole traders has near unanimous support. Of all respondents, 89% rated it 4 or 5 out of 5, and 78% said it would take a real administrative burden off them. Support is just as strong among venues, agents and festivals as among artists.
• A de minimis threshold. Implementing a well utilised threshold de minimis has very strong support as a well-documented simple way to support sole traders. 78% support a de minimis threshold.
• A hobby form exemption also has very strong support. Among those who answered, 85% rated a hobby form exemption 4 or 5.5
• The 12% is mostly coming out of performers’ pockets. Since 1 July, 34% of artists say they have had fees taken out of the existing fee, whilst 5% say they have the super paid on top. 20%, including many DJs, say that super has never and is still not, being paid at all.
• Work is disappearing. Members report cancelled festivals, venues dropping live music, bookers let go, and venues and agents refusing to book sole traders. One regional NSW venue is cancelling all 150 of its gigs a year.
• Compliance is uneven. Many payers still don’t accept they are liable, while those paying correctly carry costs their competitors don’t.
• Few musicians know about the Super co-contribution or Low Income Super Tax Offset (LISTO). Without being asked, about a quarter of respondents (25%) said neither they nor the musicians they work with had heard of them.
• Members want a standing working group, certainty on the past and a free clearing house. Recognition of live music as a structurally complex industry with a standing working group was chosen by 83%, a written assurance and amnesty on past engagements by 74%, and a free clearing house with workable stapled fund processes by 66%.5

ALMBC has proposed the following pointd for the joint statement.

Who we are and why we are writing

• We represent the musicians, venues, festivals, agencies, promoters, organisations and crew of Australia’s live music industry
• We support superannuation and want more of it reaching people in our sector
• Since Payday Super began on 1 July 2026, s 12(8) of the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 has proved unworkable at the grassroots end of the industry
• Median income from music is below $15,000 a year and most performers run at a loss
• The result is gigs cancelled, fees cut and community festivals closing, not super being paid
• We thank the ATO for its September revisions to the performer guidance. The structural problem and administrative burden, remains

The ask: treat music businesses like every other small business

• A sole trader carrying on a music business should be treated the way the tax system treats every other sole trader
• A self-employed plumber gets no super from clients, contributes to their own fund, and is reported to the ATO by every business that pays them. Nobody calls that removing super from low paid workers
• The s 12(8) deeming provision is the only reason a musician with an ABN is treated differently. 92% of music industry workers surveyed want it changed
• The ATO already has a test for who is carrying on a business, used for ABN entitlement and the non-commercial loss rules
• A worker such as a sound engineer, on a venue’s roster once or twice each week could remain captured within the deeming provisions (like make up artists), or be engaged as an employee under ordinary law and should keep their entitlement
• A performer who markets, books and invoices their own work or an engineer working across multiple festivals and venues is running a business

The package that makes it work

• Lift and index the government super co-contribution and LISTO so artists below the line contribute to their own fund and government tops it up
• The entitlement does not disappear. It moves from an employer obligation nobody can administer to a government match the artist / sole trader controls

If government will not move on the deeming provision

• A $5,000 de minimis on the gross booking fee, below which s 12(8) does not apply. Backed by 78% of members surveyed
• Recognition of the Statement by a supplier form for artists and not-for-profit community events. Backed by 83%
• Both carry the same co-contribution pairing
• For everyone who stays in the super guarantee (bands paid as a group above the line, crew, employees):
  • one payment per act to a nominated collector, who reports each member’s share through STP and discharges the payer’s liability on payment
  • a remittance timing concession for small engagements
  • support for a creative industries superannuation clearing house

What this delivers and what we ask for

• Music businesses treated like every other small business
• Nobody loses an entitlement – more super in the accounts of low income artists
• Better data for the ATO than it holds today
• Administration removed that currently produces non-compliance, not contributions
• We ask the Assistant Treasurer and the ATO to meet with us before the end of the year, and we offer the data, examples and member input from across our organisations

You may agree with all of the above, most, some or even none of the above! We want to hear from you through the body that represents you – your local music industry leadership group, your state body, a national body that represents your sector.

If you have not heard from a music industry body that you are a member of, asking your opinion on the above, please contact them and invite them to get in touch with their members.

We need everyone to work together to gain agreement if we can.

Please share this with anyone you think interested.