Concessional cap — 2025–26
Concessional contribution caps 2025–26 (Australia)
Concessional contributions are the pre-tax money going into your super — employer Super Guarantee, salary sacrifice, and personal deductible contributions. The 2025–26 cap is $30,000 per person, with carry-forward available if your total super balance is under $500,000. Here's exactly how the cap works, who can use carry-forward, and what happens if you go over.
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How the concessional cap works in 2025–26
A concessional contribution is any contribution to super that has NOT been taxed at your marginal rate on the way in. Employer Super Guarantee (12% from 1 July 2025), salary sacrifice from your pre-tax pay, and personal deductible contributions you claim under section 290-170 of the ITAA 1997 all count. They are all taxed at 15% inside the fund — the 'concession' the name refers to.
For 2025–26, the standard cap is $30,000 per person. That is a hard limit across every super fund you contribute to, not per fund. If you have an SMSF and an industry fund, both funds' concessional contributions count toward the same $30,000 ceiling.
Carry-forward is the sleeper. If your Total Super Balance at 30 June 2025 was under $500,000, you can use any unused concessional cap from the last five financial years (2020–21 through 2024–25). Someone who made no voluntary contributions during those five years could contribute up to $132,500 in a single 2025–26 year and still be within cap — a powerful lever for a one-off bonus, inheritance-funded pre-tax top-up, or the year of an asset sale where offsetting a large gain matters.
Exceed the cap and the excess is added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate, with a 15% offset for the tax already paid by the fund, plus an interest charge (ATO shortfall interest). You can elect to release up to 85% of the excess from super to fund the tax bill personally. easySMSF flags at-risk contributions before they're allocated inside the fund.
Looking forward: based on current ABS wage growth, the cap is more likely to step up to $32,500 from 1 July 2026 than to hold. Non-concessional caps automatically move to 4× the concessional cap, so if $32,500 lands the non-concessional cap rises to $130,000 in the same year.
- Standard concessional cap 2025–26: $30,000 per person
- Applies across all your super funds combined, not per fund
- Carry-forward: unused cap from 2020–21 to 2024–25, if TSB under $500,000
- Includes SG (12%), salary sacrifice, and personal deductible contributions
- Taxed at 15% inside the fund (30% if Division 293 applies over $250,000 income)
- Excess: taxed at marginal rate + interest, with 15% offset
- 2026–27 outlook: most likely to step to $32,500 with AWOTE