You can’t claim a deduction for superannuation contributions paid by your employer directly to your super fund from your before-tax income such as:
- the compulsory super guarantee
- Salary sacrificing super amounts
- Reportable employer super contributions.
You may be able to claim a tax deduction for personal super contributions that you made to your super fund from your after-tax income, for example, from your bank account directly to your super 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 form (NAT 71121) and receive an acknowledgement from your fund. There are other eligibility criteria that you must meet.
People eligible to claim a deduction for personal contributions include people who get their income from:
- salary and wages
- a personal business (for example, people who are self-employed contractors, or freelancers)
- investments (including interest, dividends, rent and capital gains)
- government pensions or allowances
- super
- partnership or trust distributions
- a foreign source.
The personal super contributions that you claim as a deduction will count towards your concessional contributions cap. When deciding whether to claim a deduction for super contributions, you should consider the super impacts that may arise from this, including whether:
- you will exceed your contribution caps
- Division 293 tax applies to you
- you wish to split your contributions with your spouse
- it will affect your super co-contribution eligibility.
If you exceed your cap, you will have to pay extra tax and any excess concessional contributions will count towards your non-concessional contributions cap.
For more information, see Super contributions – too much can mean extra tax.
Find out about
- Eligibility to claim a deduction
- How to make a claim
- What you can’t claim
- How to vary your notice
- Splitting amounts to your spouse
- The effects of claiming a deduction
Australian Taxation Office
(ATO)
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is general in nature and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Please consider whether the information is appropriate to your circumstance before acting on it and, where appropriate, seek professional advice.