Topping¹ up your super is a great way to accelerate your savings, take advantage of tax concessions and other Government incentives and turn on the turbo power of compounding interest. It’s important to know that once your money is inside super, investment earnings are generally taxed at less than 15% because of the benefit of other tax credits and offsets that the fund may be able to claim. That’s a great way to grow your super.

Here’s how it works. You ask your employer to deduct an extra amount from your regular pay and put it into super. As this amount comes out of your before-tax pay it’s not part of your assessable income for taxation purposes. You may get a very nice tax break AND you’re squirreling away that extra money where it will be invested –to grow instead of frittering it away on….stuff. Over the course of your ‘working week’ this can make a huge difference to your ‘weekend’.

When you top up your super with money that’s already been taxed – e.g. from your take-home pay or from your bank account – this money isn’t taxed on the way into super. And here’s the kicker, your top ups could be tax deductible. It’s another great way to grow your super – and remember, a little more squirrelled away today could mean a lot more for you on the ‘weekend’.

To see what works best for you – before-tax, after-tax or both – try the Government's
super contributions optimiser, speak to your financial adviser or if you don’t have one, ask a smartCoach.

Contact a smartCoach today on 1300 262 241, or email smartcoach@smartmonday.com.au.

If you’re not working or if you earn less than $37,000 a year, after-tax top ups your partner makes to your super may give them a tax offset of 18 cents for every dollar they contribute up to a maximum of $3,000 – that’s a total tax offset of $540.

Spouse contributions can be beneficial for both parties – helping one grow a bigger nest egg while potentially providing tax benefits to the other. Eligibility criteria do apply so to see if this is a good option for you, see our Spouse contribution factsheet for all the details.

If you are 55 or older, you may consider selling the family home and downsizing – maybe a tree change or sea change. If you’re eligible to take advantage of a Downsizer Contribution you can top up your super with a lump sum of up to $300,000 from the proceeds. Couples could contribute $300,000 each to their super if the sale proceeds are at least $600,000, even if only one spouse owned the home. This strategy allows you to bypass the usual contributions caps and get a large amount of money into the tax-advantaged environment of super.

If you are considering a Downsizer Contribution, we recommend checking the rules and your eligibility on the ATO website. We also strongly recommend seeking financial advice as this is a major event with potentially wide ranging and permanent consequences for you and your spouse, including potential impacts on your eligibility to claim the age pension.

The tax breaks offered by super can be so good, the Government places limits on how much people can contribute to super each year. These are called ‘contributions caps’.

The rules are quite complex, and it’s important to get it right, so as your first point of call we recommend you reach out to your financial adviser, if you have one. Your adviser can review your financial situation and help you decide:

• whether a top-up is right for you at this time
• how much you can top up and how much you should top up
• How best to do it – e.g via salary sacrifice or via personal tax-deductible contributions
• Whether to claim a tax deduction on any personal after-tax contributions

You also have access to our team of smartCoaches who can provide you with advice about your contributions, investment mix, insurance, retirement adequacy, and transitioning to retirement within your smartMonday account.

You can contact the smartCoach team on:
P: 1300 262 241
E: smartcoach@smartmonday.com.au

To get you up to speed before you talk to your adviser or a smartCoach, here’s a summary of the rules that apply.

The first thing to get your head around (if you haven’t already) is the difference between concessional contributions and non-concessional contributions.

Concessional contributions : Capped at $27,500

These are called ‘concessional’ because they’re taxed at a special low rate – only 15%. (By comparison, the tax rate for annual income between $45,000 and $120,000 is more than double – 32.5%). The tax is paid on the way in to super.

Concessional contributions include:

• Employer Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions based on 11% of your earnings 
• Any voluntary (additional) employer contributions such as the payment of insurance costs, administration fees, or any other additional contributions made by your employer on your behalf
• Personal before-tax contributions (aka salary sacrifice contributions) 
• Personal after-tax contributions for which you claim a tax deduction. Please note: you’ll need to let us know you’re intending to claim a tax deduction on your personal contributions for the year by completing a Notice of intent to claim a tax deduction form (‘Deduction Notice’) available on our website smartMonday.com.au and returning it to us before you lodge your income tax return and before 30 June of the following financial year.

The ‘carry-forward’ rules could increase your cap.

If the total amount you had in super at 30 June of the previous financial year is less than $500,000 you can ‘carry forward’ any unused concessional cap amounts from earlier years to make ‘catch up’ contributions. You can use caps from up to five previous years. For more information, see the ATO website at ato.gov.au/individuals/super under ‘Concessional contributions and contributions caps’

Non-Concessional contributions : Capped at $110,000 

These are contributions made to your super fund from after-tax income. Because it’s after-tax money, it’s not taxed on the way into your super at all, and the cap is much higher than for concessional contributions.

The 'bring-forward' rules could increase your cap

People under the age of 75 may be able to make non-concessional contributions up to 3 times the annual non-concessional contributions cap in that financial year, known as the ‘bring-forward’ arrangement.

An eligible person who makes a non-concessional contribution in excess of the cap in a financial year automatically triggers this ‘bring forward’ provision. How much you can bring forward depends on your ‘Total Superannuation Balance’ (TSB). Your TSB is the value of all your super accounts on 30 June of the financial year immediately prior.

For a more information about non-concessional contributions, check out the ATO website .

Once you’ve reached out to your financial adviser or smartCoach and have decided to make a voluntary contribution, it’s easy to go ahead and make a contribution.

Personal contributions: the easiest way is BPAY®

Login to your account for your unique BPAY details to make Personal contributions through your bank or obtain these details on your annual statement, or by contacting us.

Please keep in mind your financial institution's processing time-frames if making payment via BPAY. We recommend you allow at least three business days for BPAY and 7-10 business days for postage.

Employer contributions

If you decide to make additional ‘Salary Sacrifice’ contributions, you will need to talk to your employer so that they can organise these payments from your ‘before-tax pay’. If you would like to make regular contributions from your ‘after-tax pay’ you can also talk to your employer regarding this.