Superannuation Rates and Thresholds for 2023 – 2024

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released the key superannuation rates and thresholds for the 2023/24 financial year.

Superannuation Guarantee (SG) – the SG rate rises to 11% for 2023/24

Each employer you work for must pay money, known as Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions, into your super account on top of your salary and wages. Generally, if you’re over 18 years, you’re entitled to receive super, regardless of whether you’re full-time, part-time or casual, or if you’re a temporary resident of Australia. Exceptions apply – visit the ATO website for more information. The SG rate is also increasing over the next few years as detailed in the table below.

It’s important to note that before 1 July 2022, you also had to be earning more than $450 a month (before-tax) to be eligible to receive SG contributions. However, in a move widely considered to make super fairer, a bill to remove this minimum monthly income threshold for compulsory SG contributions was passed in parliament. This means, from 1 July 2022, you will be eligible to receive compulsory employer SG payments, no matter how much you earn.

Concessional Contributions Cap – Since 1 July 2021, the cap is $27,500 a year.

Concessional contributions are contributions that you or your employer make to your super with before-tax income or claim as a tax deduction. They are also referred to as employer or before-tax contributions.

Note that from 1 July 2018, if you do not use all of your concessional cap, you may be able to carry forward any unused amounts and increase your cap in future years (if you are eligible). Your MyGov account will show you the concessional cap available to you each year. For more information please read our Fact Sheet on Contribution Limits.

Non-Concessional Contributions Cap – the cap for 2023/24 will be $110,000.

Non-concessional contributions are contributions you or your spouse make to your super from your after-tax income. They are also referred to as personal or after-tax voluntary contributions. Anyone that has super worth over $1.9 million is not eligible to make non-concessional contributions to super.

Depending on your total superannuation balance, if you’re aged under 75, you may be able to bring forward up to two years of contributions, giving you a total maximum non-concessional cap of $330,000 for the three years.

Maximum contribution base

The maximum super contribution base is used to determine the maximum limit on any individual employee’s earnings base for each quarter of any financial year. The maximum contribution base for Superannuation Guarantee (SG) purposes is $62,270 per quarter for the 2023-24 financial year.

Superannuation Co-Contribution

The maximum co-contribution entitlement for the 2023/24 year remains at $500. The lower income threshold (for full entitlement) increases to $43,445 and the higher income threshold (cut-off for eligibility) increases to $58,445.

The super co-contribution is designed to help lower income earners save for their retirement by providing a government top-up where an eligible person makes a personal (after-tax) contribution to super. The government will pay up to 50 cents for every dollar you contribute, subject to a maximum of $500 per year. The amount they match will be added to your super account. The maximum super contribution payable, and the way it is calculated depends on the financial year in which you make your eligible personal contribution.

Low Income Superannuation Tax Offset (LISTO)

From 1 July 2017, the Australian Government introduced a Low Income Superannuation Tax Offset (LISTO) to replace the Low Income Superannuation Contribution (LISC). LISTO will continue to support low income earners to accumulate super and make sure they don’t pay more tax on their super than on their take-home pay.

This means, if you earn $37,000 or less a year, you may be eligible to receive a LISTO contribution to your super. This contribution is equal to 15% of the total concessional (before-tax) super contributions you or your employer pays into your super account, for an income year, capped at $500.

For more information visit ato.gov.au

Spouse contributions

A spouse contribution is an after-tax contribution to a superannuation account held in your spouse’s name. In other words you’re investing money into your spouse’s super account rather than your own.

You can make spouse contributions for your spouse at any time before their 75th birthday, regardless of whether or not they are working. You can’t make spouse contributions for a spouse aged 75 or over.

A spouse includes a de facto partner. Also, both you and your spouse must be Australian residents at the time the contributions are made.

As the contributor, you can get a tax rebate up to $540 per financial year. You get the full tax rebate if:

• you contribute at least $3,000 to your spouse’s account; and
• their assessable income plus reportable fringe benefits plus reportable employer super contributions is less than $37,000 for the year.

If you contribute less than $3,000, the rebate will be equivalent to 18% of your contributions.

If your spouse’s relevant income is higher than $37,000, the rebate reduces until it cuts out when your spouse’s income reaches $40,000.

You can find more details about eligibility on the ATO website.

Downsizer super contributions

If you have reached the eligible age, you may be able to contribute up to $300,000 from the proceeds of the sale (or part sale) of your home into your super. The eligible age from 1 January 2023 is 55 years old or older. There is no maximum age limit.

The downsizer contribution:

• counts towards the transfer balance cap when you move your super savings into retirement phase, but if you have already reached the $1.9 million transfer balance cap, your downsizer contribution, along with any other amounts above the cap, can remain in accumulation phase and will be subject to 15% tax on investment earnings.
• will impact Age Pension benefits. Super isn’t exempt from the Age Pension test, which means any money put into super, such as a downsizer contribution, could impact the assets and income tests aligned to the Age Pension.
• is a one-time offer, so it cannot be used again for the sale of a second home.

To learn more about downsizer contributions, check out the ATO website

Your super and the work test

If you are under 75 years of age, you can make or receive after-tax super contributions and salary sacrificed contributions without meeting the work test, provided you remain under the current annual contribution caps and your balance is less than $1.9 million.

Here’s how it works:

• If you’re making contributions to your super, you can continue to make before-tax contributions up to $27,500 a year, minus any other before-tax contributions you receive, such as employer contributions. You may also have a higher before-tax limit, if you have ‘unused’ amounts from previous years.
• If your total super balance is less than $1.9 million, you can now make additional after-tax contributions up to $110,000 a year. You may also use the ‘bring forward’ rule to make after-tax contributions of up to $330,000.

That said, if you want to make an after-tax contribution for which you plan to claim a tax deduction (referred to as a ‘personal deductible contribution’), then you still have to meet the work test requirements to prove you are gainfully employed—that is 40 hours or more in any 30-day period in a financial year in which you make the contributions.