Super Contribution Caps: How Much Can You Put In?

01 Concessional: $30,000, taxed at 15%

The concessional cap is $30,000 for 2024-25, and it covers all your before-tax contributions together: employer Super Guarantee, salary sacrifice, and personal contributions you claim a deduction for. These are taxed at 15% inside super (the reason salary sacrifice saves tax). Because SG counts toward the cap, your salary-sacrifice room is $30,000 minus your employer's contributions.

The cap is commonly read as a target to contribute up to, and it is more useful read as a ceiling that already has your employer standing in it. Super Guarantee counts toward the same $30,000, so the amount you can actually add voluntarily is smaller than the headline and shrinks as the SG rate rises — someone who set a salary sacrifice figure three years ago and has not revisited it may already be over.

On the defaults above, the worked example shows: Your employer puts in about $13,800, leaving $16,200 you can salary sacrifice at the 15% rate this year.

Source: ATO — Concessional contributions cap

02 Carry-forward unused concessional cap

If your total super balance was under $500,000 at the prior 30 June, you can use unused concessional cap from the previous five financial years on top of the current year's cap.

Unused amounts have accrued since 2018-19 and expire after five years, oldest first. Someone who has only ever received employer contributions on a modest salary can easily have $50,000 or more banked without having done anything deliberate.

This is most valuable in a year when income spikes — selling an investment property or a parcel of shares, receiving a large bonus, or returning to full-time work after a break. A deductible contribution using banked cap offsets that income at your marginal rate while being taxed at 15% inside super, and the larger the spike the more the banked cap is worth.

The constraint is the $500,000 test, which is measured on one date that has already passed and is a cliff rather than a taper. A balance growing past $500,000 switches carry-forward off for the following year entirely, so the banked cap someone has been saving for a future high-income year frequently has fewer years left than they assume. Check the available figure in ATO online services rather than reconstructing it from payslips.

Source: ATO — Concessional contributions cap

03 Non-concessional: $120,000, or $360,000 brought forward

Non-concessional contributions are made from after-tax money and aren't taxed again in super; the cap is $120,000 a year. If you're under 75, you can 'bring forward' up to three years' worth — up to $360,000 in one year — subject to your total super balance being under the relevant threshold. This is how downsizer proceeds, an inheritance, or the sale of an investment can be moved into super.

If you exceed a cap: the excess concessional amount is added to your assessable income (taxed at your marginal rate, with a 15% offset for the tax already paid in super) plus an interest charge; an excess non-concessional amount is taxed heavily unless you withdraw it with its associated earnings. The system lets you fix most breaches if you act, but the simplest path is to track contributions against the caps before 30 June.

Source: ATO — Non-concessional contributions cap