Super Facts & Figures

1. Superannuation Guarantee (SG)

The Superannuation Guarantee (SG) is the compulsory amount your employer must contribute to your super account at the same time you’re paid. If your employer is required to make SG contributions, the contribution rate is 12% of your earnings. From 1 July 2026, Payday Super came into effect. The government has clarified which ‘earnings’ are used to calculate your SG contributions. These earnings are known as Qualifying Earnings (QE).

There is no maximum age limit for employees to receive SG contributions.

In fact, most employees receive SG, though there are some exceptions. For example, if you’re under 18, you need to work more than 30 hours per week before an employer is required to make an SG contribution for you.

For more information on SG rules, be sure to check here.

2. Maximum super contribution base

The current SG contribution rate is 12% of your earnings up to a certain limit. This limit is called the maximum super contribution base. In recent years, if you had earned above that limit for each quarter, your employer didn’t have to make contributions for the part of your earnings over the limit.

This limit is now an annualised amount, meaning that if you earn over $270,830 in the 2026-27 financial year, your employer can stop making SG contributions once they have contributed $32,500 for the financial year.

The MSCB is indexed annually, and the new thresholds published by the ATO.

For earlier maximum super contribution bases, visit the ATO’s super guarantee page. 

3. Government co-contribution

You may be eligible for the Government co-contribution of up to $500.

For more information and an estimated calculation ,visit our Government Co-contributions page.

The thresholds and rates relating to this government co-contribution may be different from year to year. Visit the ATO’s Government co-contributions page. 

4. Conditions of release

You can access your super when you retire or meet certain conditions of release.

Generally, super benefits cannot be accessed (are preserved) until you:

• reach age 65, or stop working with an employer on or after age 60
• are 60 years old and are receiving your super as payments from a transition to retirement income stream such as a Rest Pension
• become totally and permanently disabled
• are diagnosed with a terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than 24 months
• leave or change your employer and your account balance is less than $200
• are a temporary resident permanently leaving Australia (excluding New Zealand citizens)
• satisfy the relevant Australian regulatory body that your money should be released for compassionate reasons
• satisfy the conditions for severe financial hardship.  

The concessional contributions cap is indexed annually. in line with average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE).

Indexation does not increase the cap in some years as increases are rounded down to the nearest multiple of $2,500.

For earlier rates visit the ATO’s page on contribution caps. 

5.2. Excess concessional contributions

If you go over the concessional contribution cap, you will pay extra tax on the excess contributions (at your marginal tax rate, less 15% tax already paid). If you leave the excess concessional contributions in super, the excess amount will be counted as non-concessional contributions. You also have the option of withdrawing the excess amount out of your account. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will send you information on your options when a breach of this cap occurs.

For more information about exceeding the concessional contribution cap, see here. 

6. Non-concessional (after-tax) contribution caps

Non-concessional contributions (NCC) are generally the after-tax contributions you make to a super fund. They include personal contributions you make from your after-tax pay and spouse contributions. If you have more than one super fund, all non-concessional contributions made to all your funds are added together and counted towards the cap.

If you are interested in making a larger contribution in a financial year, and you are under age 75 you may be able to ‘bring forward’ the next 2 years’ worth of non-concessional contributions, meaning you use some of your cap for the next 2 years to make a larger contribution in one year. For example, in 2026-27 you could contribute up to $390,000 in that year then no contributions over the next 2 financial years without exceeding the cap.

Therefore, the cap for the bring forward option is calculated by multiplying the non-concessional cap of the first year by three (Age and balance restrictions apply for contributions, see ‘9. Age Restrictions on contributions’ below for more information).

The bring-forward amount and period are dependent on your total superannuation balance on the day before the financial year that triggers the bring-forward. For 2026-27 financial year this is: 

For earlier rates and additional information, go to the ATO’s page on non-concessional contribution caps.  

6.2. Re-contribution of COVID early release superannuation amounts

Individuals who accessed their superannuation under COVID-19 early release will be able to re-contribute up to the amount they received without the contributions counting toward their non-concessional cap. These contributions:

• can be made up till 30 June 2030
• cannot exceed the amount accessed under COVID-19 early release
• cannot be claimed as a personal tax deduction.
• Individuals choosing to re-contribute must notify us in an approved form (before or at the time of making the re-contribution).

For the latest information visit the ATO website.

7. Retirement income stream limits (eg. Rest Pension)

7.1. Minimum annual pension payments

Once a pension commences, a minimum amount is required to be paid each financial year. The minimum pension payment rates for an account-based pension are shown in the table below. These apply to both Rest Pension account types and are based on a financial year and calculated pro-rata if commencing or closing an account part way through the financial year. 

7.3. Transfer balance cap

The government prescribes a maximum amount that can be transferred into Retirement pensions e.g. Rest Pension Retirement account, and other accounts you may hold such as account-based pensions and annuities. The transfer balance cap applies to the total amount transferred from accumulation phase (including Rest Pension – Transition to Retirement) into retirement phase (e.g. Rest Pension Retirement account) and includes any Retirement Bonus made after transfer. The general transfer balance cap is $2.1 million (2026-27) and will be indexed annually with CPI in $100,000 increments.

Any individual already in retirement phase will need to ensure adherence to the cap at the time they start their first retirement account. For example, those who have started a retirement phase income stream between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2025 will have a personal transfer balance cap of $1.9 million.

If you exceed your transfer balance cap, the excess will need to be withdrawn or transferred back to super and tax may be payable see 8.8 below. The ATO will notify you if you exceed your cap.

You can read about your cap and how the general transfer balance cap is applied on the ATO website. 

8.4. Tax on withdrawals

Super can only be withdrawn in specific circumstances. Generally, if you withdraw any part of your super benefit after age 60, no tax is payable.

Prior to age 60 some tax may be payable and will be deducted from your super benefit by the fund. The tax deducted depends on the components within your account. Superannuation accounts are divided into two components for tax purposes, a tax-free component and a taxable component. The tax-free component will always be tax-free, while the taxable component may attract tax depending upon your age.

The tables below show how tax is generally applied to different types of withdrawals. 

Tax on lump sum withdrawals by member

If you are receiving a payment due to Total and Permanent Disability the above age-based tax rates apply, however the fund will complete a calculation to increase your tax-free component. 

Tax on income streams eg. pension payments

Notes:

Additional tax may be payable on any untaxed element of your Rest account or if you have not provided us with your TFN.

The Medicare Levy for the financial year 2026-27 is 2%.

Please refer to the ATO website for more information on how the different components of superannuation benefits are taxed. 

Tax on death benefits 

Tax payable by a dependant on a death benefit taken as an income stream 

For further information on who is a dependant for tax purposes see the ATO website.

Departing Australia superannuation payment (DASP)

For further information go to the ATO website.

8.5. Low rate cap amount

The low rate cap is a limit set on super lump sum payments that can receive concessional tax treatment, and applies to members who have reached preservation age but are under age 60. The low rate cap amount is reduced by any amount previously applied to the low rate threshold.

8.6. Untaxed plan cap amount

The untaxed plan cap amount limits the concessional tax treatment of benefits that have not been subject to contributions tax in a super fund (untaxed elements). The untaxed plan cap amount applies to each super plan from which you receive super lump sum member benefits.

8.8. Excess Transfer Balance Cap tax

If you exceed your personal transfer balance cap amount you will have an excess transfer balance. If this occurs the ATO will notify you, and you will need to commute the excess transfer balance and will be subject to excess transfer balance tax. The transfer balance tax payable is 15% on a portion of earnings of the excess amount, for the first time you exceed the cap, and 30% on a portion of earnings of the excess amount, for subsequent times and is due and payable 21 days after the assessment is issued to you. 

See the ATO website for more information.

9.1. Work Test

Individuals aged 67-74 must still meet the work test to claim a deduction for personal contributions. To meet the work test requirements a person must be gainfully employed (i.e. employed or self-employed for gain or reward) for at least 40 hours within 30 consecutive days in the financial year the contributions are made. If you fail the work test, you may be eligible for the work test exemption, which is only available once. To be eligible you must have met the work test in the previous financial year and have a total superannuation balance below $300,000 at the end of the previous financial year.