If you made personal super contributions from your after-tax income, you may be able to claim a tax deduction. The income used to make these after-tax contributions can come from different sources including salary and wages, a personal business, investments, government pensions and profits from the sale of assets.
It should be noted you cannot claim a tax deduction for super contributions made by your employer including the 10.5% superannuation guarantee and any reportable contributions such as salary sacrifice arrangements. You also can’t claim a deduction for rollover payments from another fund.
Before you can claim a deduction for your personal super contributions, you must give your super fund a ‘Notice of intent to claim or vary a deduction for personal contributions’ and receive an acknowledgment from your fund.
You must give notice of intent to claim or vary a deduction to your fund by the earlier of either:
- The day you lodge your tax return for the year in which you made the contributions
- The end of the income year following the one in which you made the contributions
Any contributions made will count towards your concessional contributions cap, which is currently $27,500 per year and includes your 10.5% super guarantee and salary sacrifice contributions. If you exceed the contributions cap in a year you may be liable for additional tax on the excess contributions.
From 2019-2022, carry forward rules allow you to make extra concessional contributions without having to pay extra tax. However, there are several conditions to be met including, your total super balance is less than $500,000 on 30 June of the previous financial year, you have made concessional contributions that exceed your general limit, and you have unused concessional contributions cap amounts from up to 5 previous years, but not before 2018-19.
Some effects of claiming a deduction for personal super contributions include:
- A reduction in your taxable income, due to the deduction, reducing the amount of tax you need to pay.
- Super contributions claimed as a deduction are taxed in the superfund at the rate of 15%. This rate, for most people, is lower than the marginal tax rate paid on income from wages. Your superfund will withhold this amount from your super account.
- The deductible personal contributions will count towards your reportable super contributions and will affect your income for some tax offsets, concessions, the Medicare levy surcharge and certain government benefits and obligations.
Always talk to your accountant about the tax implications of making after tax super contributions.
Author
Emma Russoniello
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