Concessional Contributions Cap 2025-26: The $30,000 Line

The concessional contributions cap is $30,000 for the 2025-26 financial year. This is the total amount of pre-tax super contributions that can receive the 15% concessional tax treatment. Contributions above this cap are taxed at your marginal rate plus an excess contributions charge.

Pre-tax contributions are taxed at 15% inside super. Your marginal tax rate outside super can be 19%, 30%, 37%, or 45% depending on your income. The difference is the potential tax saving.

What Counts Toward the Cap

Three types of contributions count toward your $30,000 concessional cap.

Superannuation Guarantee (SG): Your employer's mandatory 12% contribution. If you earn $150,000, that's $18,000 of your cap gone before you do anything else.

Salary sacrifice: Pre-tax contributions you arrange with your employer. These come out of your pay before income tax is calculated. The super fund then applies 15% tax when it receives the contribution.

Personal deductible contributions: After-tax money you contribute yourself, then claim as a tax deduction on your return. You notify your super fund that you intend to claim a deduction. The fund taxes it at 15%. You receive the deduction at your marginal rate.

All three types count toward the same $30,000 cap. There is no separate cap for employer contributions vs salary sacrifice vs personal deductible. They all share the same limit.

The Cap is Annual, Not Lifetime

The cap resets every financial year (July 1). You can't "carry over" exceeded contributions to next year. If you contribute $35,000 in one year, you've exceeded the cap by $5,000. That $5,000 will be included in your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate, plus you'll pay an excess contributions charge.

The ATO won't automatically stop contributions when you hit $30,000. You need to track your total across all sources yourself.

Catch-Up Contributions (Carry-Forward)

If your total super balance was below $500,000 on June 30 of the previous financial year, you can carry forward unused concessional cap amounts from the past 5 financial years.

This provision exists to help people who've had career breaks, variable income, or periods where they didn't contribute the full amount. The unused cap expires after 5 years on a first-in, first-out basis.

The ATO tracks this automatically. You can check your unused cap space by logging into myGov and accessing ATO online services. The information appears under "Super" ? "Information" ? "Carry-forward concessional contributions".

Division 293 Tax

If your income plus concessional contributions exceeds $250,000, you pay an additional 15% tax on the excess concessional contributions. This brings the total tax on those contributions to 30% (15% standard super tax + 15% Division 293 tax).

Division 293 applies to the lesser of:

• Your concessional contributions for the year, or
• The amount by which your combined income and contributions exceed $250,000

The ATO issues a notice of assessment for Division 293 tax after you lodge your tax return. You can choose to pay the tax from your own funds or have it deducted from your super (creating a debt against your account).

Tax Savings by Income Bracket

The potential tax saving from concessional contributions depends on the difference between your marginal tax rate and the 15% super tax rate.

Taxable Income	Marginal Rate	Tax Saved per $10,000 Contributed
$45,001 - $135,000	30%	$1,500
$135,001 - $190,000	37%	$2,200
$190,001 - $250,000	45%	$3,000
$250,001+	45% (but Division 293 applies)	$1,500 (net, after Division 293)

Note: These figures assume no Medicare Levy Surcharge and ignore LITO. The actual amount will vary based on your specific circumstances.

Tracking Your Contributions

You need to track your own contributions throughout the year. The ATO won't stop you from exceeding the cap. Most super funds send quarterly statements showing year-to-date contributions, but by the time you receive a statement, you may have already exceeded the cap.

Check with:

• Your employer (for SG and salary sacrifice amounts)
• Your super fund (for personal contributions)
• myGov ATO online (for a consolidated view, though this lags by several weeks)

If you have multiple employers or multiple super funds, tracking becomes more complex. Each employer contributes SG independently. Each fund receives contributions independently. You need to aggregate them yourself to ensure you stay under the cap.

Exceeding the Cap

If you exceed the cap, the ATO will issue an excess concessional contributions determination. You have two options:

Option 1: Release the excess amount from super. The excess is added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate. You also pay an excess contributions charge (essentially interest on the delayed tax). The super fund releases 85% of the excess (the remaining 15% was already paid as tax when the contribution entered the fund).

Option 2: Leave the excess in super. The excess is still added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate, plus you pay the excess contributions charge. But the money stays in super (now counting toward your non-concessional cap if you have space).

Neither option is penalty-free. Exceeding the cap costs you.