If you’re similar to many individuals, you might wonder, “Will my super account hold enough for a comfortable retirement?” or “What’s the ideal amount of super to aim for at my current age?”
There are primarily two methods for contributing to your superannuation: concessional and non-concessional. Concessional contributions involve allocating pre-tax dollars to your superannuation account, while non-concessional contributions are made with after-tax funds.
Concessional Contributions include:
The CC cap is indexed to average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE). The new indexed amount is generally available each February.
| Income Year | Your Concessional Contribution Annual Cap |
| 2024-2025 | $30,000 |
| 2021-2022 to 2023-2024 | $27,500 |
| 2017-2018 to 2020-2021 | $25,000 |
If you’re 67 to 74 years old, you will be required to meet the work test or work test exemption in order to claim a deduction for a personal superannuation contribution. No contributions can be made for this cap when you are 75 or over.
To claim the contribution as a deduction in your tax return, you must lodge a deduction notice (using the approved form) with the fund before the earlier of:
If you have an SMSF, we will prepare these documents when preparing the superfund financials and returns.
CCs attract contributions tax of, generally, 15% payable by the Super Fund.
Cap as per the below provided, your total superannuation balance (TSB) was less than $1.9 million as of 30 June 2023.
| Income Year | Your Non-Concessional Contribution Annual Cap |
| 2024-2025 | $120,000 |
| 2021-2022 to 2023-2024 | $110,000 |
| 2017-2018 to 2020-2021 | $100,000 |
The most tax-effective component within superannuation is NCCs, which are not taxed upon withdrawal. As a result, in general, you are able to take all of your NCCs as a lump sum and pay no tax, making NCCs an important super contribution consideration.
You can contribute to this cap without any restrictions as long as you are under 75.
Bring Forward Rule:
If your TSB is under the balance set out below, you can bring forward up to 2 future years caps into this year.
| TSB (as of the end of the previous FY) | NCC cap |
| Less than $1.68 million | 3 x NCC annual cap |
| $1.68 million to less than $1.79 million | 2 x NCC annual cap |
| $1.79 million to less than $1.9 million | 1x annual cap (Bring forward not available) |
| $1.9 million or more | Nil NCC cap |
If the bring-forward cap is triggered but not used in full in the 2023-24 year, the remaining cap can only be used in the 2024-25 year when the individual’s TSB is less than $1.9 million as of 30 June 2024.
From 1 July 2018, you can make ‘carry-forward’ concessional super contributions if your total superannuation balance is less than $500,000.
You can access their unused concessional contributions caps on a rolling basis for five years. Amounts carried forward that have not been used after five years will expire.
The first year you can access unused concessional contributions is the 2019–20 financial year.
The last year the unused CC cap from 2018-19 can be used is 2023-24.
In this example for the 2023/24 tax year:
Your Carry Forward Concessional Contribution Cap is the last five years of unused caps, totalling $80,500 accordingly.
| Income Year | Your Concessional Contribution Cap | Your Contributions | Unused Concessional Contribution Cap |
| 2022-2023 | $27,500 | $10,500 | $17,000 |
| 2021-2022 | $27,500 | $10,000 | $17,000 |
| 2020-2021 | $25,000 | $9,500 | $15,500 |
| 2019-2020 | $25,000 | $9,500 | $15,500 |
| 2018-2019 | $25,000 | $9,500 | $15,500 |
| Total | $80,500 | ||
If you have a spouse with assessable income, reportable fringe benefits and reportable employer contributions (super salary sacrifice contributions) of less than $40,000 you could consider making a non-concessional contribution to your spouse’s super fund.
The offset is calculated as 18 per cent of the contribution, up to a maximum of $540 where the spouse’s income is below $37,000.
A reduced offset may apply where the spouse’s income is between $37,000 and $40,000.
Therefore, if you contribute $3,000 to your spouse’s super, you will get a $540 tax offset (decrease to your tax debt) in your personal tax return.
Please note – No offset is available where:
Is your assessable income, reportable fringe benefits and reportable employer super contribution (super salary sacrifice contributions) minus deductions from carrying on a business less than $58,455?
Consider making a non-concessional contribution of up to $1,000 to super.
The maximum co-contribution is 50 per cent of the contribution, up to a maximum of $500 for income below $43,455.
If your total income is equal to or less than the lower threshold (currently $43,455) and you make personal non-concessional contributions of $1,000 to your super account, you will receive the maximum co-contribution of $500.
You won’t receive any co-contribution if your income is equal to or greater than the higher threshold (currently $58,455).
If your total income is between the two thresholds, your maximum entitlement will reduce progressively as your income rises. If your co-contribution is less than $20, we will pay the minimum amount of $20.
Please note:
The co-contribution will not be available where the client has excess non-concessional contributions or their TSB exceeds $1.9 million as of 30 June 2023.
Eligibility requires that a minimum of 10% of assessed income relates to income from employment or carrying on a business.
You can split up to 85 per cent of your concessional contributions made during a financial year (up to the concessional contribution cap) with your spouse, provided your spouse is not aged 65 or over, or reached their preservation age and retired.
This includes concessional contributions which utilises the client’s carry-forward unused concessional contribution cap. For example, someone who contributed $37,500 in 2022-23 (being their 2022-23 cap of $27,500 plus $10,000 of their carry forward cap) would be able to split up to $31,875 (i.e. 85 per cent of $37,500) to their spouse.
The application to split contributions must generally be made before the end of the financial year immediately after the financial year in which the contribution was made.
This means that the application to make split contributions for 2022-23 must be made by 30 June 2024 (unless the fund applies an earlier date).
Please note:
The concessional contributions will still count towards the cap of the spouse who made the contributions and not the cap of the spouse who receives the split contributions.
Therefore, it cannot remove any excess concessional contributions tax that you may have to pay.
The Downsizer Contribution allows eligible individuals to contribute up to $300,000 from the proceeds of the sale of a qualifying dwelling into super where specific requirements are met.
See more on this here:
https://www.austasiagroup.com/news/investments/boost-your-super-retirement-savings-downsizer-contribution/
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