Claiming deductions for personal super contributions

June 2, 2022

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:

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 aĀ Notice of intent to claim or vary a deduction for personal contributionsĀ form (NAT 71121) and receive an acknowledgement from your fund. There are otherĀ eligibility criteriaĀ 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
  • DivisionĀ 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, seeĀ Super contributions ā€“ too much can mean extra tax.

Find out about

Australian Taxation Office
(ATO)

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