Carry-Forward Super Calculator
Catch-up concessional cap — AU 2026-27

If you do not use your full concessional contributions cap in a financial year, the unused part is carried forward and can be added to a later year's cap. You can use unused amounts from the five preceding financial years, so in 2026-27 you can draw on unused cap from 2021-22 through to 2025-26. The 2026-27 cap is $32,500 and the five prior caps total $142,500, which means the theoretical maximum concessional contribution in a single year is $175,000. There is one hard eligibility test: your total super balance must have been UNDER $500,000 at 30 June of the previous financial year.

You are eligible if your total super balance (TSB) was under $500,000 at 30 June 2026 — the balance at the end of the PREVIOUS financial year, not your balance today. The test is applied once, at that date, and $500,000 or more means you cannot use any carry-forward amount this year (your normal $32,500 cap still applies). Your TSB is the combined value of all your super accounts, including any pension accounts. Because it is tested each year, a balance that crosses $500,000 does not destroy your unused cap — it just locks it until a year when your TSB is back under the threshold and the amount has not yet expired.

Unused cap expires after five years. That means the 2021-22 unused amount is in its FINAL usable year in 2026-27 — if you do not use it by 30 June 2027 it is gone permanently. The rolling schedule is: 2021-22 expires after 2026-27, 2022-23 after 2027-28, 2023-24 after 2028-29, 2024-25 after 2029-30 and 2025-26 after 2030-31. Contributions are applied against your current-year cap first, then against unused amounts oldest-first — so the ATO automatically consumes the closest-to-expiring slice before the newer ones, and you do not have to nominate a year.

A personal deductible contribution reduces your taxable income, but it is taxed 15% on the way into the fund. Your net saving is therefore your marginal rate plus the 2% Medicare levy, minus 15%. On the FY2026-27 rates that is about 2% in the $18,201-$45,000 bracket (15% + 2% - 15%), 17% in the $45,001-$135,000 bracket, 24% from $135,001-$190,000 and 32% above $190,000. So $10,000 contributed saves roughly $1,700 at a $100,000 income and about $3,200 at $200,000. If Division 293 applies, the contribution is taxed 30% instead of 15% and the saving roughly halves.

Usually not, on tax alone. In the $18,201-$45,000 bracket your marginal rate plus Medicare is 17%, and the fund takes 15%, so the net tax benefit is about 2c in the dollar — and the money is locked away until preservation age. Lower-income earners are generally better served by a non-concessional (after-tax) contribution, which can attract the government co-contribution, and by the low income super tax offset (LISTO) that refunds the 15% contributions tax for incomes up to $37,000. Carry-forward is at its most powerful in a high-income year: a bonus, a capital gain on an investment property or shares, or a redundancy payout.

Yes, and a large catch-up contribution can trigger it. Division 293 charges an extra 15% (bringing the total to 30%) when your Division 293 income plus your concessional contributions exceeds $250,000 — and the concessional contributions themselves count towards that test, so a big catch-up top-up can push you over the line even when your salary alone is below it. The extra 15% applies only to the lesser of your concessional contributions and the amount above $250,000, so it usually bites part of the contribution rather than all of it. Even at the 30% total rate a contribution can still beat a 47% marginal rate, but the maths is much tighter — this calculator flags it when your inputs cross the threshold.

There is no special form for the carry-forward part — you simply make a larger concessional contribution and the ATO applies it against your available cap automatically. If you contribute from your own after-tax money and want the deduction, you must lodge a valid Notice of intent to claim a deduction with your fund and receive their acknowledgement BEFORE you lodge your tax return (and before you start a pension or roll the money out), otherwise the deduction is lost. Salary sacrifice arranged with your employer needs no notice, because it is never in your name. If you are 67 to 74 you must also satisfy the work test to claim a personal deduction. Check your available unused cap in ATO online services via myGov, but confirm it is up to date — funds report contributions with a lag.

Log in to myGov, go to ATO online services, then Super and select Information, Carry forward concessional contributions. The ATO shows your unused amount for each of the five available years and your total super balance at each 30 June. Two cautions: the figure only reflects contributions your funds have actually reported, so late-June contributions and the current year's employer contributions may not appear yet; and if you have multiple funds, all of them must have reported before the total is reliable. This calculator lets you model the position from your own contribution records before the ATO catches up.