Contribution limits

Stay under your contribution caps and you won’t pay extra tax

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Overdo it with your contributions and you might find yourself with unwanted tax bills. Let’s take a closer look at the caps, so you can boost your super, get potential tax breaks and prevent penalty tax.

These caps apply per individual, not per super account you hold.

Before-tax (concessional) contribution cap

You can make before-tax contributions of up to $30,000 during the 2024-25 financial year.
This includes:

your employer's super guarantee contributions of 11.5% in 2024-25, and any other compulsory employer contributions
any salary sacrifice contributions
any personal contributions you've successfully claimed a tax deduction for
any insurance fees or administration fees your employer might pay for you on your behalf

Carry forward rule

The carry forward rule lets you catch up on your before-tax contributions from previous years. As long as your total super balance was less than $500,000 at the end of the previous financial year, you can exceed your cap by carrying forward any unused portions from the previous 5 years.

After-tax (non-concessional) contribution cap

The cap for after-tax contributions is $120,000 for the 2024-25 financial year.
This includes:

after-tax contributions for which you haven’t claimed a tax deduction
after-tax contributions your spouse makes to your super
before-tax contributions to your super that exceeded the annual before-tax (concessional) cap and haven’t been withdrawn from your super account.

You can’t make any after-tax contributions in 2024-25 without incurring extra tax if your total super balance (across all your funds) was $1.9 million or more at 30 June 2024.

The bring-forward rule

If you’re under 75 at any time during the financial year and your total super balance was less than $1.9 million at 30 June 2024, you may be able to bring forward up to two years’ worth of after-tax contributions in 2024-25.

This means that you could contribute up to three times the annual after-tax (non-concessional) cap in one year.

The ‘bring-forward rule’ is automatically triggered when your after-tax contributions exceed the relevant cap in a financial year.

If you first trigger the bring-forward rule in 2024-25, you can contribute up to $360,000 over three years, provided that your total super balance was less than $1.66 million at 30 June 2024. This reduces to $240,000 if your total super balance was between $1.66 and $1.78 million at 30 June 2024.

If you’ve triggered the bring-forward rule before 1 July 2024, the amount (if any) you can contribute in 2024-25 will be different, depending on your circumstances.

Example

Frank, aged 55, has a total super balance of $200,000 and is eager to boost his super. Following a recent windfall, he opts to inject $200,000 into his super in September 2024 as an after-tax contribution. Despite exceeding his after-tax cap for the 2024-25 financial year, Frank uses the bring-forward rule for the first time, which enables him to contribute up to $360,000 after-tax to his super this financial year.

If you exceed the contribution caps

If you exceed the contribution caps, you’ll generally pay extra tax. The ATO will let you know if you've gone over your limits.

When you turn 65 or 60 and permanently retire, you can transfer your money from your super ‘accumulation account’ to a ‘retirement account’. However, there are limits on how much you can transfer, known as the transfer balance cap.

The transfer balance cap is $1.9 million in 2024-25, but if you started a pension account before 1 July 2023, your personal transfer balance cap may be between $1.6 and $1.9 million, depending on your circumstances. You can check your personal transfer balance cap with the ATO.

If you exceed the cap, you may be required to pay extra tax and transfer the excess money out of your retirement accounts.

For more details, read our Super contributions fact sheet.