Concessional Contributions Cap 2026-27: How Much You Can Actually Put Into Super

🎯 What the concessional contributions cap is🔗

🎯 The essential: The concessional contributions cap 2026-27 is $32,500. It's a single, combined limit across every employer and every fund, not a per-fund or per-job allowance.

Concessional contributions are before-tax contributions going into your super fund. The fund pays 15% contributions tax on them when they arrive, generally a lot less than your marginal income tax rate.

The cap is indexed to Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) and rises in $2,500 increments, but only when wage growth is high enough to trigger a step up. It doesn't move every single year. The jump from $30,000 to $32,500 between 2025-26 and 2026-27 is the most recent increase.

Because the cap applies to all your concessional contributions combined, if you have two jobs, the SG paid by both employers counts toward the same single $32,500 limit, not two separate ones.

🧾 What counts as a concessional contribution🔗

Three types of contribution count toward the cap:

• Employer SG contributions. Your employer is legally required to pay 12% of your ordinary time earnings into super, the final legislated Super Guarantee rate, with no further scheduled increases.
• Salary sacrifice contributions. Additional before-tax contributions you arrange with your employer on top of SG, taxed at 15% inside the fund rather than at your marginal rate.
• Personal contributions claimed as a tax deduction. You make a personal (after-tax) contribution and then claim a tax deduction for it. To do this, you must lodge a section 290-170 notice of intent to claim a deduction with your fund, by the earlier of the date you lodge your tax return or 30 June of the following financial year. Miss that window and the deduction is lost.

📊 How the SG rate affects your available cap room🔗

Because employer SG now sits at 12%, it can quietly use up a large chunk of your cap before you've made a single voluntary contribution. Here's how much room is left at a few common salary levels.

The maximum contribution base for 2026-27 is $270,830. Employers aren't required to pay SG on earnings above this amount, so it effectively caps how much SG alone can eat into your $32,500 limit.

If you earn $180,000 and want to salary sacrifice, you're left with only around $10,900 of cap room after SG, which is worth checking before you set up an ongoing salary sacrifice arrangement.

⚠️ What happens if you go over the cap🔗

For example, on a $5,000 excess at a 34.5% marginal rate (including the Medicare levy): the extra tax is $5,000 times 34.5% = $1,725, minus a 15% offset of $750, for a net tax bill of $975.

The old excess concessional contributions (ECC) charge no longer applies to contributions made on or after 1 July 2021, so this is simpler than it used to be. When you go over the cap, the ATO sends you an excess concessional contributions determination. You can pay the additional tax from your own funds, or elect to release up to 85% of the excess amount from your super to help cover it.

People most at risk of accidentally going over: those with multiple employers, anyone who changes jobs mid-year, and variable income earners who set up salary sacrifice early in the year and then receive a bonus that pushes their combined contributions over the limit.

⏪ Using carry-forward if you have unused cap🔗

If you haven't used your full concessional cap in previous years, you may be able to carry those unused amounts forward and contribute well above $32,500 this year. We cover this in full detail in our guide to carry-forward concessional contributions, but the short version is below.

• Unused cap amounts from the previous five financial years can be added to your current year cap.
• You're only eligible if your total super balance (TSB) was under $500,000 at 30 June of the prior financial year, so for 2026-27 that means 30 June 2026. This threshold is fixed and isn't indexed.
• The rule started from 2018-19, but the first year you could actually use carried-forward amounts was 2019-20.
• The oldest unused amounts are used first, and they expire after five years if you don't use them.

For 2026-27, the oldest amounts you can still access are from 2021-22, since anything unused from 2020-21 expired at the end of 2025-26. This rule tends to benefit people who took time out of the workforce for parental leave or caring responsibilities, variable income earners and freelancers, and anyone who simply wasn't maximising contributions in earlier years. You can check your available carry-forward balance by logging in to myGov, under ATO online services, in the super section.

👩‍💼 Worked example: using carry-forward contributions🔗

Priya is 42 and has just returned to full-time work after several years of reduced hours. Her total super balance at 30 June 2026 is $380,000, comfortably under the $500,000 threshold, so she's eligible for carry-forward.

Priya's total available concessional cap for 2026-27 is $32,500 plus $52,500, which comes to $85,000.

She earns $85,000 in 2026-27. Her employer's SG contribution is $10,200 (12% of $85,000), leaving $74,800 of room. She makes a personal deductible contribution of $50,000, lodging the s290-170 notice of intent with her fund before she lodges her tax return.

Her tax saving on the $50,000, taxed at 15% in super instead of her marginal rate of 34.5% (including the Medicare levy), is roughly $50,000 times (34.5% minus 15%), which comes to about $9,750.

🛠️ Practical tips🔗

• Check your carry-forward balance in myGov before the end of the financial year.
• Coordinate salary sacrifice timing with your employer early, payroll systems often only adjust from the next pay cycle.
• If you have multiple employers, add up both SG amounts before setting up extra salary sacrifice.
• If you change jobs mid-year, recalculate your combined SG so you don't accidentally go over.
• Personal deductible contributions give you flexibility, since they can be made right up until 30 June.
• Keep an eye on your total super balance trajectory relative to the non-indexed $500,000 carry-forward threshold.
• Always lodge the s290-170 notice of intent before you lodge your tax return, and send it to your fund, not the ATO.

If you're also making after-tax contributions, it's worth checking whether you're eligible for the super co-contribution, a free government top-up worth up to $500 for lower-to-middle income earners. And if you're weighing up how these contributions fit into your broader retirement number, our guide to how much super you should have is a useful next read.

❓ Frequently asked questions🔗