How to Claim Personal Super Contributions as a Tax Deduction

To claim personal super contributions as a tax deduction in Australia, you lodge a Notice of Intent with your super fund, wait for the fund’s written acknowledgment, and then enter the acknowledged amount in the personal superannuation contributions section of your tax return. The contribution has to be your own after-tax money, paid into a complying fund before 30 June, and it has to fit within your concessional contributions cap — $30,000 for the 2025–26 financial year, rising to $32,500 from 1 July 2026.¹

The deduction works by reclassifying your after-tax deposit as a concessional contribution. Your fund then taxes the money at 15% instead of you paying your full marginal rate on that income.

Check You Can Claim

Most people under 67 can claim without any employment test. The contribution has to come from your own money, go to a complying super fund or retirement savings account, and land in the fund before the financial year ends.² Certain government defined-benefit schemes and constitutionally protected funds don’t qualify.

Two things you can’t claim a personal deduction on: your employer’s compulsory super guarantee payments, and any salary sacrifice amounts. Both are already treated as concessional contributions before they reach the fund.

Between 67 and 74

You can still make the contribution, but to deduct it you need to satisfy the work test: at least 40 hours of gainful employment in any consecutive 30-day period during the same financial year.³ A one-off work test exemption is available if you met the test in the previous financial year, your total super balance was under $300,000 at 30 June of that year, and you haven’t used the exemption before.

75 and Over

Your fund can only accept voluntary personal contributions made within 28 days after the end of the month you turned 75. Once that window closes, no further personal contributions go in and no deduction is available.³

Work Out How Much Fits Within the Cap

Your personal deductible contributions share one annual cap with your employer’s super guarantee payments and any salary sacrifice. The combined ceiling is $30,000 for 2025–26 and $32,500 from 1 July 2026.¹ Add up everything that’s already going in from every source before deciding what to deduct. Forgetting your employer’s contributions is the most common way people accidentally breach.

If your total super balance was below $500,000 at 30 June of the previous financial year, you can carry forward unused cap space from up to five earlier years and use it in a single year.⁴ Useful if your income fluctuates or if a lump sum arrives and you want to make a large one-off contribution.

Lodge the Notice of Intent

You can’t just claim the deduction on your return. Before you do, the fund needs a Notice of Intent to Claim or Vary a Deduction for Personal Super Contributions (form NAT 71121).⁵ The form asks for your fund’s ABN, your member account number, the total personal contributions you made that year, and the amount you want to deduct.

The fund must acknowledge the notice in writing once it accepts the notice as valid. Without that acknowledgment, you can’t include the deduction on your tax return.⁶ Most funds accept it through their online portal, which is faster than post.

The Deadline

Your notice must reach the fund by whichever comes first: the day you lodge your tax return for that year, or the end of the following income year. If you file your return early, the deadline moves with you. Submit the notice before you lodge.

When a Notice Is Invalid

The fund will reject your notice if, at the time you give it:

You’re no longer a member of that fund.
The fund no longer holds the contribution — for example, you rolled the money to another fund.
An income stream has started based in whole or part on that contribution.
A contribution-splitting application was already lodged and accepted for that money.

Rolling over is where people most often lose the deduction. If you consolidate super accounts after contributing but before lodging the notice, the original fund no longer holds the money and can’t process the notice.

Varying the Amount

You can vary a notice downward, including all the way to zero, but you can’t revoke one. To increase the amount, lodge a separate new notice for the extra, not a variation. Variations sit inside the same deadline as the original.

Enter the Deduction on Your Tax Return

In myTax through myGov, go to the “Personal superannuation contributions” section under deductions and enter the exact dollar figure from your acknowledged notice.⁷ The amount has to match what the fund acknowledged. The ATO data-matches your return against fund reports and any mismatch triggers review.

One extra rule: the deduction can’t create or increase a tax loss. You need enough assessable income to absorb it.²

What the Deduction Actually Saves You

When your notice is accepted, the fund applies 15% contributions tax to that money before it hits your account balance.⁸ For anyone on a marginal rate above 15%, the difference between 15% and your rate is the saving.

High-income earners face Division 293 tax. If your income plus concessional contributions exceed $250,000, an extra 15% applies to the contributions, taking the effective rate to 30%. The ATO issues Division 293 assessments directly after your return is processed.⁹

If You Go Over the Cap

Excess concessional contributions get added to your personal taxable income and taxed at your marginal rate. You receive a 15% tax offset to account for the contributions tax the fund already paid, so the money isn’t taxed twice.¹

You can elect to release the excess from your fund. The ATO sends a release authority, the fund pays the amount to the ATO, tax is deducted, and any balance is refunded to you. Leave the excess in the fund and it also counts toward your non-concessional cap for the year, which can cause a second breach if that cap is already near its limit.⁴

One Trade-Off to Weigh First

Claiming the deduction converts your contribution from non-concessional to concessional. The government super co-contribution is only available on non-concessional personal contributions, so once you claim, that money no longer counts toward the co-contribution.¹⁰ For lower incomes, the co-contribution (up to $500 from the government for a $1,000 personal contribution) can be worth more than the deduction. Run both scenarios before you lodge the notice. Once the fund acknowledges the notice you can only vary the amount down; you can’t switch the contribution back to non-concessional treatment.

1
Australian Taxation Office. Contributions Caps
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Australian Taxation Office. Personal Super Contributions
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Australian Taxation Office. Restrictions on Voluntary Contributions
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Australian Taxation Office. Concessional Contributions Cap
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Australian Taxation Office. Notice of Intent to Claim or Vary a Deduction for Personal Super Contributions
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Australian Taxation Office. Notice of Intent to Claim a Deduction
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Australian Taxation Office. myTax 2025 Personal Superannuation Contributions
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Australian Taxation Office. Understanding Concessional and Non-Concessional Contributions
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Australian Taxation Office. Division 293 Tax
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Australian Taxation Office. Super Co-Contribution