The Australian Tax Office limits how much can be contributed to superannuation at concessional tax rates. Exceeding these caps triggers additional tax and administration. Understanding the current caps is important for anyone making voluntary contributions, salary sacrifice arrangements, or catch-up contributions using unused cap space from prior years.
| Contribution type | 2025-26 cap | Tax treatment within cap |
|---|---|---|
| Concessional (before-tax) | $30,000 | 15% contributions tax inside super |
| Non-concessional (after-tax) | $120,000 | No additional tax if within cap |
| Non-concessional (bring-forward) | Up to $360,000 over 3 years | Subject to Total Super Balance conditions |
Caps are indexed to Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) and increase in $2,500 increments for concessional and $10,000 increments for non-concessional. The 2025-26 figures are current from 1 July 2025.
Concessional contributions are made from pre-tax income and taxed at 15% inside super (or 30% for income above $250,000 under the Division 293 tax). They include employer Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions, salary sacrifice contributions, and personal contributions for which you claim a tax deduction.
For 2025-26, the total of all concessional contributions from all sources — employer SG, salary sacrifice, and any personal deductible contributions — must not exceed $30,000 across the year. SG in 2025-26 is 11.5%, rising to 12% on 1 July 2025. An employee earning $150,000 receives approximately $17,250 in SG contributions, leaving roughly $12,750 of concessional cap space for salary sacrifice or personal deductible contributions.
Non-concessional contributions come from after-tax money — savings, inheritance, proceeds from selling an asset, or personal contributions for which no tax deduction is claimed. They enter super without further tax but are subject to a $120,000 annual cap.
The bring-forward rule allows individuals under 75 to contribute up to three years' worth of non-concessional contributions ($360,000) in a single year, triggering a three-year bring-forward period. After contributing $360,000, no further non-concessional contributions can be made for the following two financial years. The bring-forward rule is only available if your Total Super Balance (TSB) at 30 June of the prior year was below $1.66 million (2025-26 threshold).
Total Super Balance matters a lot for non-concessional contributions. If your TSB exceeds $1.9 million (the 2025-26 general TSB limit), you cannot make any non-concessional contributions at all without triggering excess contribution tax.
If you did not use your full concessional cap in any year from 2018-19 onward, you can carry forward the unused amount and use it in a later year — provided your TSB was below $500,000 at 30 June of the prior year. This allows lump-sum catch-up concessional contributions beyond the $30,000 annual cap.
For example, if you had $10,000 of unused concessional cap from each of the past three years, you could contribute $30,000 (current year cap) plus up to $30,000 of carry-forward amounts = $60,000 in concessional contributions in a single year, if eligible. This is most commonly used by people who took career breaks, reduced hours, or had periods of lower income and want to top up their super balance in higher-earning years.
Exceeding the concessional cap: the excess is included in your personal assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate, with a 15% offset to account for the contributions tax already paid inside super. You have the option to withdraw the excess from super to pay the tax liability.
Exceeding the non-concessional cap: the ATO will issue an excess non-concessional contributions tax assessment. You can choose to withdraw the excess plus 85% of associated earnings from super, with the associated earnings taxed at your marginal rate. If you do not withdraw, the excess is taxed at 47%.
Contributing to a spouse's super account (from after-tax money) is a form of non-concessional contribution that goes toward the receiving spouse's cap, not yours. A tax offset of up to $540 is available to the contributing spouse if the receiving spouse's income is below $40,000 per year (phasing out above $37,000). This is a straightforward strategy for couples where one partner has a significantly lower super balance.
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