Reportable employer superannuation contributions, usually shortened to RESC, are the pre-tax amounts your employer pays into your super fund on top of what they’re legally required to contribute. Salary sacrifice is the most common example: you agree to take less cash pay and your employer redirects the difference into super, where it’s taxed at 15% instead of your marginal income tax rate. The tax saving is real, but the same amount gets added back to your income when Services Australia and the ATO run their means tests, so the net benefit depends heavily on where you sit against various thresholds.
What Counts as RESC
The deciding factor is whether you, the employee, can influence the amount or timing of the contribution. If you can, and it sits above the compulsory minimum, it’s reportable. The ATO groups these contributions into three main types:
- Salary sacrifice arrangements, where you forgo part of your pre-tax salary in exchange for extra super.
- Additional contributions built into your pay package above the mandatory rate, where you had a say in how the package was structured.
- Directing bonuses or other pre-tax amounts into super instead of taking them as cash.
The influence test is broad. You don’t have to formally negotiate the amount. If your employer offers a menu of remuneration options and you picked the one with extra super, that counts. The contribution has to sit on top of what your employer already owes under the Super Guarantee, an award, an enterprise agreement, or any other legal obligation. Only the portion above those compulsory layers is RESC.1Australian Taxation Office. Identify Reportable Employer Super Contributions
What Doesn’t Count
Several categories of super contributions fall outside the RESC label, and mixing them up will distort your tax position.
Super Guarantee contributions are never reportable. The mandatory rate for the 2025–26 financial year is 12% of ordinary time earnings.2Australian Taxation Office. How Much Quarterly Super to Pay It’s a legal obligation, not something you influenced.
Contributions required by an award or enterprise agreement don’t count either, even if they push your employer’s total above 12%. You didn’t choose them.
Employer contributions you can’t alter also fall outside RESC. Some employers round up super for payroll simplicity or apply a blanket policy giving everyone, say, 13% regardless of individual preferences. Where a documented employer policy controls the extra amount and no employee can change it, that top-up isn’t reportable.1Australian Taxation Office. Identify Reportable Employer Super Contributions
Your own after-tax contributions from take-home pay aren’t RESC because they aren’t employer contributions at all. Personal super contributions you claim a tax deduction for are reported separately on your return as a reportable personal contribution, not as RESC.
Why People Salary Sacrifice
The appeal comes down to a rate comparison. Pre-tax dollars going into super are taxed at 15% inside the fund.3Australian Taxation Office. Salary Sacrificing Super If your marginal rate is 32.5% or 37%, the gap is significant. Someone earning $100,000 who sacrifices $10,000 into super saves tax on that $10,000 at the difference between their marginal rate and the 15% contributions tax.
The trade-off is that your take-home pay drops by the sacrificed amount, and the money is locked away until preservation age. And, as the sections below cover, the RESC amount gets added back into your income for several government tests. If you sit near a threshold for the Medicare levy surcharge, HELP repayments, or a family payment, run the numbers before you commit.
The Concessional Contribution Cap
All concessional contributions share a single annual cap: $30,000 for the 2025–26 financial year.4Australian Taxation Office. Contributions Caps The cap covers everything taxed at 15% going in: your employer’s Super Guarantee payments, any RESC, and any personal contributions you claim a deduction for. Contributions across multiple funds are added together.
Going over triggers an unpleasant outcome. The excess is added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate. Because the fund already withheld 15%, you get a 15% tax offset to avoid double taxation, but you still pay substantially more than if you’d stayed under the cap.4Australian Taxation Office. Contributions Caps
If you haven’t used your full cap in recent years, you may be able to carry forward unused amounts. This is available where your total super balance was below $500,000 on 30 June of the previous financial year, and unused cap amounts expire after five years.4Australian Taxation Office. Contributions Caps Check your available cap space through myGov or ATO online services before directing a bonus into super.
How RESC Affects Government Income Tests
RESC doesn’t increase your taxable income, but it does get added back when the government calculates your adjusted taxable income. ATI is essentially taxable income plus RESC, reportable fringe benefits, deductible personal super contributions, net investment losses, net rental property losses, and certain other amounts.5Australian Taxation Office. Adjusted Taxable Income for You and Your Dependants 2025 That inflated figure feeds several programs.
Medicare Levy Surcharge
Without private hospital cover, income above the relevant threshold attracts an additional surcharge of 1%, 1.25%, or 1.5% depending on tier.6PrivateHealth.gov.au. Medicare Levy Surcharge For 2025–26, singles above $101,000 and families above $202,000 enter the first tier. RESC counts in the income test, so salary sacrifice can push you above a threshold you’d otherwise sit below. For some people, private hospital cover ends up cheaper than the surcharge.
HELP and Study Loan Repayments
RESC is included in repayment income for HELP, VSL, and other study and training loans.7Australian Taxation Office. Options for Adding to Your Super From 2025–26, the system uses a marginal approach rather than the older flat-percentage model. No repayment is required below $67,000. Between $67,001 and $125,000, you repay 15 cents for each dollar over $67,000. Between $125,001 and $179,285, the repayment is $8,700 plus 17 cents per dollar above $125,000. At $179,286 and above, the repayment is 10% of total repayment income.8Australian Taxation Office. Study and Training Loan Repayment Thresholds and Rates Because RESC inflates that income figure, salary sacrifice can raise your compulsory repayment even though the money never hit your bank account.
Child Support
Child support assessments use ATI, which includes reportable superannuation contributions. The Child Support Guide lists RESC as a component of a parent’s adjusted taxable income alongside taxable income, fringe benefits, foreign income, and investment losses.9Family Assistance Guide. 3.1.1 Adjusted Taxable Income Salary sacrifice reduces your cash pay, but the contribution is treated as money you could have taken home. Using it to lower your apparent income won’t reduce a child support obligation.
Family Tax Benefit and Government Co-Contribution
Family Tax Benefit eligibility is tested against ATI, so RESC pushes the income figure used in the means test higher.10Services Australia. What Adjusted Taxable Income Is Higher ATI can reduce the benefit or eliminate it entirely.
The government super co-contribution works the other way. To receive the maximum $500 co-contribution for 2025–26, your total income (which includes RESC) must be below $47,488. A reduced co-contribution is available up to $62,488, after which eligibility ends.11Australian Taxation Office. myTax 2025 Government Super Contributions If you’re a lower-income earner weighing salary sacrifice, check whether the tax saving outweighs a lost co-contribution. It often doesn’t at lower incomes.
Division 293 for High Earners
If your combined income and concessional super contributions exceed $250,000, Division 293 imposes an additional 15% tax on some or all of your concessional contributions. In effect, high earners pay 30% on those contributions rather than the standard 15%.12Australian Taxation Office. Division 293 Tax on Concessional Contributions by High-Income Earners
The extra tax applies to the lesser of your total concessional contributions or the amount by which combined income and contributions exceed $250,000. Someone earning $240,000 with $30,000 in concessional contributions would attract the extra 15% only on the $20,000 above the line. The ATO calculates Division 293 automatically and issues an assessment; you can pay it yourself or have your super fund release the amount.12Australian Taxation Office. Division 293 Tax on Concessional Contributions by High-Income Earners
Even at 30%, that’s still below the top marginal rate of 45% plus the 2% Medicare levy. Salary sacrifice keeps a meaningful advantage for high earners; it’s just a smaller advantage than for someone on a lower marginal rate.
Checking Your RESC Figure
Employers report RESC through Single Touch Payroll, and the figure appears on your income statement in ATO online services through myGov once your employer finalises payroll for the year. The ATO uses it to pre-fill your tax return.13Australian Taxation Office. Access Your Income Statement Before lodging, cross-reference the RESC amount against your pay slips and any salary sacrifice agreement you signed. If it looks wrong, raise it with payroll before finalisation. Corrections afterwards are possible but slower, and a wrong figure will flow through every income test above.