"I found out in October. The sale settled in April."
Your accountant does the tax return months after the year ends. By then it is too late. The window shut on 30 June, and nobody at the sale was thinking about super.
Your full access is on
Welcome back
Everything is unlocked. Change one figure and run it again as often as you like. Nothing is deducted, nothing counts down, and none of it expires.
Your access
Unlimited
No expiry, nothing to renew
The super rules in use right now
All guides
Caps and rates in use
1 July 2026 caps and rates
Re-run after the next 1 July
Concessional cap, 2026-27
$32,500
Indexed in $2,500 steps
Oldest unused year expires
30 June 2027
Re-run your scenario before this date
The balance test
$500,000
Not indexed, and a hard line
Your account and help
Access and ordersBig tax bill coming? Your unused super cap can cut it, but only before 30 June.
Don't lose over $20,000. Our free carry-forward concessional contributions calculator shows how much tax your unused super cap could save you, on your own numbers, before a wrong guess costs you.
Sold a rental, shares or a business this year? Had a big bonus or a redundancy? Then a big tax bill may be on its way. In myGov there is a figure called unused concessional contributions. It is the super cap you did not use in the last five years. If you use it before 30 June, it can cut that tax bill a lot. Nobody involved in your sale is paid to tell you.
A licensed financial adviser charges $2,500 to $6,000 for written advice on this, and it can take weeks you may not have. This calculator does the maths in about three minutes. It works out every amount you could put in, and the tax each one saves, with the working shown, before the year closes.
- Free estimate. No card, no sign up
- Full report $19, paid once. Advisers charge $2,500 or more
- Built on the 1 July 2026 caps and rates
Free 30 second estimate
Three answers. Your rough tax saving.
$
$
-
You could put in
$-
this financial year
Tax you could save, this year and next
$-
-
A rough guide only. It assumes only your employer's compulsory super has ever gone in. The full calculator asks what really went in, year by year.
Sound familiar?
Never heard of unused super cap?
That is not your fault.
The rule is buried in one section of the tax law. myGov shows it as a bare number with no explanation. It matters most in the one year your income jumps, which is exactly the year you are busy with a sale. And nobody around that sale is paid to mention it.
"What even is a concessional contribution?"
Concessional. Non-concessional. Total super balance. Notice of intent. Division 293. Each one is a real rule with real dollars behind it, written in words nobody outside the industry uses. We translate every one.
"My brother-in-law said to just put in the max."
Sometimes that works. Often it does not. The last dollars of a big contribution come off a lower tax bracket than the first ones. And once your income plus super contributions passes $250,000, some of what goes in is taxed at 30% instead of 15%. The biggest amount does not always save the most.
"Is it too late? And can I get the money back?"
Two different worries. The first is a real deadline, and it is closer than you think. The second is access: money that goes into super stays there until you meet a condition of release, and no tax saving changes that. The report shows both.
So we built the tool that was missing.
You enter your numbers. We apply the published caps and tax rates, work out every amount you are allowed to put in, and put them in order of the tax each one saves. No appointment, no sales call, no tax file number, and no name unless you want one on the cover.
The ATO won't tell you what it's worth
It holds your figure and shows it in myGov. It does not say what it is worth, which
part expires first, or that this year is when it is worth the most.
Your super fund can't work it out
Your fund knows what went into your account. It does not know your income, your
capital gain or your other accounts, so it cannot work out your cap and does not
try.
An adviser will, for $2,500 to $6,000
For some people that is the right call, because an adviser can give a personal
recommendation and take responsibility for it. But if what you need is the maths,
you need it before 30 June, not in six weeks.
About three minutes, free, with no card and no sign up. You will see how much you can put in, whether you pass the $500,000 balance test, and how much tax you could save.
The cost of not checking
Same sale, same super.
$21,794 apart in tax.
Two made-up owners sell the same rental for the same gain in the same year. Same salary, same super balance. One checks a number in myGov before 30 June. The other does not.
Guessed
Dean, 52
- Sold the unit for a $400,000 gain, less $18,000 of selling costs
- Never checked his unused concessional cap
- Put in nothing beyond his employer's compulsory super
- Heard about it from his accountant in November, five months too late
Tax for the year
$114,200
Checked first
Marcus, 52
- Same unit, same $400,000 gain, same $18,000 of selling costs
- $320,000 in super at 30 June, so under the $500,000 limit
- $78,600 of unused cap from five earlier years, plus this year's cap
- Put in $96,700 before 30 June and lodged his notice of intent
Tax for the year
$92,406
Same sale. Same rules. Dean paid this much more tax.
$21,794
That counts the 15% tax his fund pays on the money, and the Division 293 tax
his high income year brings. It is what Marcus really saves, not what the deduction looks
like on paper. And $73,045 of his contribution is now in his super account. Neither
of them broke a rule. Nobody showed Dean the amounts he could have put in, or what
each one would save, and nobody involved in his sale had any reason to mention it.
Seeing every amount worked out on your own figures costs $19, once.
Dean and Marcus are made up. The maths is not: both figures come from this calculator's own engine on a $400,000 gross gain less $18,000 of selling costs, a $120,000 salary, $14,400 of employer contributions, $320,000 in super at 30 June and five earlier years at the amounts shown on the worked examples page, on the 1 July 2026 caps and rates.
Your options
Three ways to work this out.
Two of them cost you.
| Guess What most people do |
An adviser Licensed, personal advice |
Catch-Up Super This calculator |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Nothing now, the whole saving later |
$2,500 to $6,000 | $19 |
| How long it takes | An afternoon of searching | Two to six weeks | About 3 minutes |
| Prices every amount you could put in | |||
| Shows the maths | Usually not | ||
| Tells you what to do |
The deadlines
Three dates that decide how much tax you save
Everything here runs on 30 June. Miss one of these dates and the choice is made for you, at a price you did not pick and cannot undo.
Days left before your oldest unused cap vanishes
Unused concessional cap lasts five years, then it is gone. The - amount is the oldest one you can still use, and it disappears on -. Nothing warns you. See how the five year window works.
The day your fund must have the money
A contribution counts in the income year your fund receives it, not the year you send it. This year's cap is -. With five unused years behind you, the most you can put in is -. The form you need to lodge.
The day the caps and tax rates change
The concessional cap is re-indexed in $2,500 steps, and the second tax rate falls again. The balance test stays at -, because it has never been indexed at all. These figures use the -, for the - income year.
Free vs paid
The free estimate shows what you could save. The report shows how.
The free estimate shows where you stand and the most tax you could save. The Catch-Up Contribution Report works out every amount you could put in, on your own figures, and puts them in order, with charts and all the working shown so you can check it.
Free: where you stand, and what you could save
- How much you can put in this year, worked out from the published caps
- Whether you pass the $500,000 balance test, and by how much
- Which rules apply to you: Division 293, the work test, the capital gains discount
- The most tax you could save, after your fund's tax
- Every amount you could put in named, with what each one means in plain English
Paid: what each amount saves, to the dollar, $19
- The exact tax each amount saves, to the dollar
- Every amount in order, including the ones that save less
- Your unused cap split year by year, with the 30 June each part expires
- The amount that brings your income down to exactly the edge of a tax bracket
- If Division 293 applies: how much it takes, and why the last dollars can cost half as much tax as the first ones
- Next year's balance test, rerun with your contribution counted in
- Ask the assistant about your own figures, with no limit
- The whole report as a PDF to print or send to your accountant, charts included
See a full sample report, free. It follows one made-up person all the way through, with the open half exactly as a customer sees it, and the assistant live on it for two questions.
How it works
Your catch-up super contribution, worked out in 3 steps
If you can read a super statement, you can use this. Simple mode asks only what decides the answer. Advanced mode adds selling costs, capital losses, salary sacrifice and next year's income.
Enter your numbers
Your super balance on the last 30 June, your age, what went in during each of the five earlier years, this year's income and the gain. We never ask for your name, tax file number, member number or myGov login.
See where you stand, free
How much you can put in, whether you pass the $500,000 balance test, which rules apply to you, every amount you could put in, and the most tax you could save.
See what every amount saves, before 30 June
$19 unlocks the full report. Every amount is worked out to the dollar and put in order, so a costly mistake stands out while there is still time to avoid it. It includes a PDF to send to your accountant.
Built on the tax law itself (section 291-20)
That is the carry-forward rule itself in the ITAA 1997, with the balance test in subsection (3). Plus the ATO's published contribution caps and the 2026-27 income tax rates.
Every step of the maths shown
No black box. Every figure in the report shows the maths behind it, down to which tax bracket each slice of the deduction came off.
Not advice, and we say so
We are not licensed to tell you how much to contribute, and we never do. We show you the maths, which is the part nobody else hands you.
Money back if it cannot model you
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong, tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Included with the report
Confused by a number?
Just ask about it.
Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report: your figures, your unused years, your numbers. Ask it anything about the report and it answers in plain English, from your own figures.
Ask Agent
What is Division 293 in normal words?
An extra 15% the fund pays on contributions once your income plus your contributions passes $250,000. It means the fund takes 30% instead of 15%. Your income plus employer contributions is $314,160, so it passes by $64,160. On this report it costs $7,500 more than contributing nothing would.
So is it worth contributing at all?
That is your call rather than mine, and here is the arithmetic behind it. Division 293 is charged on the lesser of your contributions and that $64,160, so it stops growing once your contributions pass it, which happens at $50,000 of your own money. Below that line each dollar costs 30% and above it each dollar costs 15%, so the last half of your contribution keeps almost twice as much as the first half. That is why the curve in section 05 bends upward instead of flattening.
An example of the kind of answer it gives, on the sample report's figures. Every number in it is on that page.
-
It reads your report, not a script Why the top amount is not the biggest one, what Division 293 does to your answer, what happens if you wait until next year. It answers from your own figures and quotes them back.
-
Plain English on a confusing subject It is built for this one subject and told to explain rather than impress. No acronym without the meaning attached, short answers, and no lecture.
-
Totally optional. Use it or ignore it. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it. Nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it, and nothing is sent anywhere unless you ask it something.
-
It is never told who you are What it receives is the figures on your report: amounts, years and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never a tax file number, member number or bank detail, because we do not hold those. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given.
-
Your chat is not kept The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it. We record that a question was asked so we know the feature is used, never what it said. Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel.
-
It explains the rules. It does not give advice. It will tell you what the rules say, what each amount keeps and where the figures come from. It will not tell you how much to contribute, which is the same line the report itself holds. Nothing here is personal financial advice.
Price
$19, once. Every amount priced before 30 June.
One payment. No expiry, nothing to renew, and we never keep your card. It unlocks the whole report and lets you rerun the numbers as often as you like, for as long as you like.
If it cannot model your situation, you get your money back.
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong, tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Prices in Australian dollars. Pay securely through PayPal with a card or PayPal balance. No PayPal account needed. See a sample report before you decide.
FAQ
Carry-forward super contributions: your questions answered
They let you use super cap you did not use in earlier years. Everyone has a yearly limit on before-tax super contributions, called the concessional cap: $32,500 in 2026-27. Since 1 July 2018, any part you do not use is carried forward for five years, so in 2026-27 the unused amounts from 2021-22 onwards still count. If only employer super has gone in, your cap can be up to $175,000 in one year.
Only people whose total super balance was under $500,000 on the 30 June just before the year they contribute in. It is a hard line, not a sliding scale: at $499,999 the whole carried forward amount is available, and at $500,000 none of it is. Your balance on any other date makes no difference, and the test is run again every 30 June.
You save the gap between your top tax rate and the 15% your fund pays on the way in. At the 47% rate that is 32 cents in every dollar you contribute, and at the 39% rate it is 24 cents. Once your income plus contributions passes $250,000, Division 293 doubles the fund's rate to 30% and the saving roughly halves.
Yes, and silently. Each year's unused amount lasts five years and is then gone for good. The 2021-22 amount is the oldest one you can still use, and it expires on 30 June 2027. Nothing warns you, nothing rolls it over, and the ATO does not write to tell you. The figure in myGov simply reads lower the following July.
The concessional cap is $32,500 a year in 2026-27. It covers your employer's compulsory super, any salary sacrifice, and any personal contribution you claim a tax deduction for. So if your employer puts in $14,000 this year, you have $18,500 of cap left, not $32,500. The cap is indexed in $2,500 steps, which is why it sits still for years and then jumps.
Sign in to myGov, open the ATO service, then choose Super, then Information, then Carry forward concessional contributions. The screen shows each year's cap, what was reported and the unused amount. The latest year is often incomplete, because funds report after the year ends. It also does not tell you whether you pass the $500,000 balance test, which part expires first, or what it is worth.
Yes. A personal contribution is only deductible once your fund has acknowledged your notice of intent in writing. You must give it by the earlier of the day you lodge your tax return and the end of the following income year. A notice can be reduced but not increased, and rolling over, withdrawing or starting a pension before you give it destroys the deduction.
The extra is added to your taxable income and taxed at your marginal rate, with a 15% tax offset for the tax your fund already paid. The old excess contributions charge was removed from 1 July 2021. You can choose to release up to 85% of the excess from super to help pay the bill, and any excess left in super counts towards your non-concessional cap.
Yes, but from 67 to 74 you must pass the work test to claim the deduction. That means at least 40 hours of paid work within 30 days in a row, in the same financial year. There is a one-off exemption for some people who met the test the year before. After the month you turn 75 ends, your fund has 28 days left to receive a personal contribution.
Yes. Once any discount is applied, a capital gain is taxed as ordinary income in the year you sell, so a deductible super contribution comes straight off it. The gain falls in the year the contract is signed, not the year it settles, and the fund must receive the money by 30 June of that year. The saving is your tax rate less the fund's 15%.
No, not until you meet a condition of release, and no tax figure can change that. Super is preserved: preservation age is now 60 for everyone, and before then the money cannot be reached without a condition of release. From 65 it is available whether you have retired or not. The report shows your own position on the page, because for many people it decides the question on its own.
No. This is an information service. It applies the published rules to the figures you enter and shows what they produce, with every working visible. It ranks contribution amounts on one stated measure, the tax kept after the fund's 15%, and does not recommend any of them. Whether you can afford to lock the money away, and whether your fund will accept it, are not part of that measure.
Miss 30 June and this saving is gone for good.
A contribution made in July cannot be deducted against a gain made in June. By then the oldest slice of your unused cap has expired too. Your tax return gets lodged months later, when there is nothing left to decide. Three minutes now could be the best-paid three minutes of the whole sale.
No card. No sign up. Your own figures, worked out in minutes.
The ATO already holds your unused cap figure. In a big income year it can be worth more than in any other year.
Carry-forward concessional contributions calculator: see your tax saving
myGov shows you a number. This shows you what that number is worth in the year you sell: every contribution amount priced side by side, including the ones that save less than they cost.
Seven short steps, about three minutes. At the end you will know how much you can put in, whether you pass the balance test, and the most tax you could save.
Step 1
Just started
Figures as at -.
Your free estimate
What your unused super cap could save you
The super rules that apply to you
How much tax you could save
Do nothing and you miss out on $0 of tax savings
That is the net tax saving from the amount that saves the most, after your super fund's tax, on your own figures.
A licensed financial adviser's written advice
$2,500 to $6,000
Doing nothing
-
This report
$19
Unlock your full report before 30 June
The email you will log in with. Leave it empty to use your PayPal email.
Secured by PayPal
14 day refund terms
Nothing renews
And you can ask it questions. If you want it, your report comes with an assistant that has read it and explains any figure in plain English. It is given the amounts on your report, never your name or your email, and the conversation stays in your browser.
If it cannot model your situation, you get your money back.
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong,
tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Not ready to decide?
Email this estimate to yourself, free
How much you can put in, whether you passed the $500,000 balance test, and the date your oldest unused cap expires. It will still be in your inbox in May, while there is time to act.
Your estimate now, then three short follow-ups over the next week, and we stop. Unsubscribe in one click. We never sell your address.
One decision, one price
See what every amount saves before 30 June
Put the wrong amount into super in the year you sell, and it can cost you thousands in tax you did not have to pay. The deadline is 30 June. The full report works out every amount you could put in, on your own figures, puts them in order of the tax each one saves after the fund's 15%, and shows the working for every line.
If it cannot model your situation, you get your money back.
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong, tell us
within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
See a sample report before you buy.
Common questions before you buy
Yes, it is included, and using it is entirely your choice. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it. Nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it.
When you do ask it something, what it receives is the figures on your report: amounts and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never a tax file number, super member number or bank detail. We do not hold those in the first place. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given. The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it, and we record that a question was asked without recording what it said.
Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel, including who processes it.
No. You pay once and the access is yours. No subscription, and nothing renews. PayPal handles the payment, so we never even see your card number.
No. We are not licensed to. It works out every amount you could put in on your own figures and puts them in order by one measure: the tax saved after the fund's 15% and any Division 293 tax. Which amount suits you also depends on whether you can do without the money until you can reach your super, and no calculator knows that.
Catch-Up Super provides information, not financial product advice. We are not licensed to give personal financial advice and we never tell you which option to pick. What we do is apply the published rules to the figures you enter and show you what they produce, with every working visible. Your real unused cap is the figure the ATO holds and shows in myGov, and a deduction is only allowed once your super fund has acknowledged the notice of intent you lodge with it. Both of those beat anything on this site.
Checkout: unlock your full catch-up super report
The full report opens the moment the payment clears, on the figures you have already entered. Nothing renews.
What you get today
Total
$0.00
The email you will log in with. Leave it empty to use your PayPal email.
Secured by PayPal
Pay by PayPal or card
No renewals
Worked examples, priced by the real engine
Catch-up super contribution examples: 11 worked cases
Eleven people with a one-off income year: a rental sold, a business sold, an inherited townhouse, one very good trading year, a balance over the line, a cap already used up. The people are made up. Every figure on their cards is not. Each one is produced at page load by the same engine a paying customer's report is built from, on the caps and rates below. Nothing here is typed in, so nothing here can go stale.
3 rules to know before you read the numbers
1
Unused cap lasts five years, then it expires
Everyone has a yearly limit on the super that goes in before tax: $32,500 this year. Whatever you do not use is carried forward and can be added to a later year. Each year's leftover lasts five years and then disappears, and nothing warns you when it does.
2
It only works if your balance was under $500,000
You can only use unused cap if your total super balance on the 30 June just gone was under $500,000. It is a hard line, not a sliding scale, and only that one date counts.
3
Your saving is the gap between two tax rates
A deduction saves tax at the rate on the income it removes, and the fund pays 15% tax on the money as it goes in. What you save is the difference. That is why the same contribution is worth 32 cents in the dollar to one person on this page and almost nothing to another.
Everything below is those three facts in real dollars, for eleven different households. Worked out on the current schedule.
Your numbers are different. See yours.
Your own figure turns on five things none of these people share with you: your balance at the last 30 June, what actually went in during each of the five earlier years, your income before the sale, the size of the gain, and how much cash you could put in before 30 June. Change any one of them and the ranking moves.
Your options, side by side
Every amount Helena can put in for 2026-27, and the tax each one saves. Her income and her cap are the same in every row. Only the amount changes. Open Show Details on any row to see what that amount means and the steps involved.
The short version
Seven amounts worked out on Helena's figures, in order of the net tax each one saves after her fund's 15%.
Saves the most
$26,596
Everything you can put in
How much she can put in
$101,780
$18,340 this year plus $83,440 unused from earlier years
Saved per dollar
26c
on $101,780 put in
More than putting in nothing
$26,596
the amount that saves the most, against doing nothing
How the amounts are put in order. By one measure only: the income tax and Medicare levy each amount saves, less the 15% tax the fund pays and any extra Division 293 tax, across 2026-27 and 2027-28. It is arithmetic, not a recommendation.
What that measure leaves out. Money in super stays there until she can access it. At Helena's age that is when she retires. Whether she can do without it until then is not in any figure on this page.
The same amounts, drawn to scale
The longer the bar, the more tax that amount saves. The chart does not say which one to choose.
Her unused cap, year by year
Unused cap is not one big amount. It is five separate amounts, one for each earlier year, and each one expires on its own date. Once this year's own cap is used up, the oldest amount is used first.
| Income year | Cap | Went in | Unused | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | $27,500 | $9,800 | $17,700 | 30 June 2027 |
| 2022-23 | $27,500 | $10,600 | $16,900 | 30 June 2028 |
| 2023-24 | $27,500 | $11,400 | $16,100 | 30 June 2029 |
| 2024-25 | $30,000 | $13,100 | $16,900 | 30 June 2030 |
| 2025-26 | $30,000 | $14,160 | $15,840 | 30 June 2031 |
The part that expires this year. $17,700 of unused cap from 2021-22 can be used in 2026-27 and never again. It expires on 30 June 2027, and nobody writes to tell her. On its own it saves $3,274 in tax on her figures.
What each extra dollar saves
Every amount from nothing up to $101,780, worked out in steps. Where the line flattens, each extra dollar saves less.
Why the line bends. Division 293 adds 15% tax on the smaller of two figures: Helena's super contributions, or the $64,160 by which her income plus contributions is over $250,000. Once her contributions pass $64,160 the extra tax stops growing. So the last $50,000 she puts in saves almost twice as much per dollar as the first $50,000.
The dates that matter, and the paperwork
Every date here is set by law or published by the ATO. We did not make any of them up.
| Date | What happens | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 30 June 2027 | The 2021-22 unused cap expires | Unused cap lasts five years. Helena's $17,700 from 2021-22 can be used in 2026-27 and never again. |
| 30 June 2027 | The last day the fund can receive a 2026-27 contribution | A contribution counts in the year the fund receives it, not the year it is sent. A transfer sent on 30 June that arrives on 2 July counts for 2027-28, not 2026-27. |
| 30 June 2028 | The deadline for the notice of intent | The deduction is only allowed once the fund has replied in writing to a valid notice of intent. The notice must be given before the tax return is lodged, and no later than the end of the next income year. |
This is the general process, not instructions. We are not licensed to tell anyone what to do with their own money.
6 more sections and 10 charts in the full report
- 07Which tax rate the deduction comes off
- 08Your whole tax bill, with and without the contribution
- 09The $500,000 balance test, this year and next
- 10Where the money ends up
- 11If the one-off amount turns out bigger or smaller
- 12Putting it in next year instead
Everything above is real arithmetic for a made-up person. Run your own figures and this half opens for you.
And you can ask it questions. Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report and explains any figure in it in plain English. Using it is entirely your choice, it does nothing until you press the button, and it is given the amounts on your report and never your name, your email or your account.
That is somebody else's answer. Yours takes about three minutes, and seeing where you stand costs nothing.
We could not find that link
The link may have been used already. If you still get emails, contact us and we will stop them.
Free guides
Carry-forward super guides: unused cap made simple
Plain English guides to catch-up concessional contributions: the five year window, the $500,000 balance test, what a deduction is really worth against a capital gain, and the paperwork that decides whether it counts. Written for somebody who has just sold something and has never heard the words before. This year's caps, this year's rates, and every working shown.
Reading helps. Knowing what your own unused cap is worth helps more.
The year you sell
Bonus or redundancy year? How catch-up super can cut the tax
You do not need to sell anything for this to be worth doing. A large bonus, one exceptional year of self-employed income, a lump sum of back pay, or the taxable part of a redundancy payout all push income into a band you are not normally in - and a catch-up contribution comes off the top of it.
Why a big income year works just like a sale
The mechanism does not care where the income came from. Australia taxes on a progressive scale, so the last dollars of a large year are taxed at a much higher rate than the first ones. A deduction removes income from the very top of that stack.
The difference from a capital gain is that ordinary income has no discount. A $150,000 gain on a property held over twelve months adds $75,000 to taxable income; a $150,000 bonus adds $150,000. So a given amount of one-off income does more damage than the same amount of capital gain - and a deduction against it is correspondingly more useful.
Which parts of a redundancy payout count?
This is where a redundancy year needs care, because a termination payout is not one thing. It is usually four or five things with four or five different tax treatments, and only some of them belong in this calculation.
| Part of the payout | How it is taxed | Include as one-off income? |
|---|---|---|
| Tax-free part of a genuine redundancy | Not assessable at all | No |
| Employment termination payment (the taxable balance) | Its own concessional rates up to a cap | No |
| Unused annual leave paid out | Ordinary rates, with an offset in some cases | Generally yes |
| Unused long service leave paid out | Depends on when it accrued | Ask a tax agent |
| Salary and wages up to the last day | Ordinary rates | Yes, in the salary field |
| A bonus or ex gratia amount that is ordinary income | Ordinary rates | Yes |
Putting a whole termination payout into a calculator as ordinary income overstates the answer, often by a lot. The figure that belongs here is the part that goes in at ordinary marginal rates and nothing else.
Worked example: Bianca's big contract year
Bianca is 41 and works as a contract project manager. Four ordinary years on around $118,000 were followed by one where a long project finished and she invoiced an extra $145,000. Her taxable income for the year is $263,000 rather than $118,000.
She has $205,000 in super, so she passes the $500,000 test comfortably. Her employer contributions have never filled the cap, leaving $87,340 of unused cap, and $18,340 of this year's own cap. Room: $105,680 - but she has $90,000 of cash available, so the cash is what binds rather than the rules.
Contributing $90,000 removes income taxed at 47% down to $190,000, then at 39% below that. Against the fund's 15% and the Division 293 tax that a $263,000 year attracts, she keeps a little under $27,000 - and $74,550 of the contribution lands in her super.
The following year her income goes back to $118,000, where the same contribution would have been worth about a third less. That is the whole argument for using the room in the year the income is unusual.
Division 293 in a redundancy year
Division 293 charges an extra 15% on concessional contributions where income plus contributions passes $250,000, so the fund effectively takes 30%. The threshold has not moved since 2017 and is not indexed.
A one-off income year is exactly what pushes somebody over it who is nowhere near it ordinarily, and it applies for that year alone. It does not make the contribution pointless - 47% against 30% still keeps 17 cents in the dollar - but it does roughly halve the answer, and it is the single biggest reason a rule of thumb overstates the saving. How it is actually calculated is here, and it is not what most people assume.
Cash flow: why a redundancy year is different
In a sale year the money arrives and the tax bill arrives together. In a redundancy year the money arrives and the income may not restart.
A catch-up contribution moves cash into an environment it cannot be taken back out of. Preservation age is 60 for everybody now, so somebody made redundant at 48 with an uncertain employment outlook is contemplating locking money away for twelve years at exactly the moment liquidity matters most.
That is not an argument against it. It is an argument for the figure the calculator asks for: how much cash could you actually put in, as opposed to how much room the rules allow. The two are usually very different, and the smaller one is the one that decides.
What a super contribution does not reduce
A deduction reduces income tax and the Medicare levy. It does not reduce:
- The Medicare levy surcharge tier, because income for surcharge purposes adds reportable superannuation contributions back on.
- A compulsory HELP repayment, for the same reason. Somebody with a large one-off year and a HELP debt faces a repayment calculated on income the deduction did not reduce.
- Family Tax Benefit or child support assessments.
- Any Centrelink waiting period attached to a termination payment.
The paperwork is the same as any other year
Nothing about a bonus or a redundancy changes the mechanics of the contribution itself. The money has to reach the fund before 30 June of the same income year, a notice of intent has to be lodged with the fund and acknowledged in writing, and the deduction is claimed in that year's return.
One thing worth watching in a redundancy year: if you are consolidating or rolling over super accounts at the same time - which people often do when they leave a job - the notice of intent has to be given before the money leaves the account. Rolling over first destroys the deduction.
How much could your big year save?
Enter the extra income, your ordinary salary and your balance at 30 June, and we price every contribution amount against it.
Sign in
Sign in to see your saved reports and your full report access.
Create your account
It is free. Your reports are saved, so you never have to type your figures in again.
Reset your password
We will email you a link to set a new password. It works once and lasts an hour.
Choose a new password
Pick something you will remember.
Your details
Change your password
Full report access
Free view
Get the full report to see what every option costs you, in order.
Your passes
My reports
Your orders
About us
Why we built a catch-up super calculator
You have sold a rental, a business or something you inherited, or you have had one year of income that is nothing like the others. There is a tax bill coming that is larger than any you have had before, the money to pay it is sitting in your account, and somebody has mentioned that you could have put some of it into super. The window to do anything about it closes on 30 June, which is usually months before the return is even prepared.
None of the rules are secret. Carry-forward is section 291-20 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, the $500,000 balance test is subsection (3) of it, the contribution caps are published by the ATO each year, and the individual income tax rates are in the Income Tax Rates Act 1986. The reason so few people ever see their own figures is that those rules sit across four documents, none of which is written for the person affected. And the one screen that shows the number, in myGov, shows it without any arithmetic beside it.
Catch-Up Super does one thing: it applies those published rules to your figures and shows you, in full, what they produce. Every contribution amount priced, every one ranked on one stated measure, and every working visible, down to which tax bracket each slice of the deduction comes off. So you can check it, argue with it, or take it to somebody who can.
We do not tell you how much to contribute. We are not licensed to. And the part people are missing is the arithmetic, not an opinion. Here is what licensed advice on this actually costs, if you decide you want it as well.
Privacy Policy
Short version: we hold as little as we can, we never ask for the identifiers that matter most, and the calculation runs on your own device. The long version is below, because you are entitled to it.
1. About this policy
This policy explains how XTO Pty. Ltd. (we, us, our) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, and how you can access, correct or complain about it. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
It applies to calculatedchoices.com.au and to every email we send you. It does not apply to any third party site we link to.
2. What we never collect
We do not ask for, and you should never send us, your Medicare number, tax file number, tax file number, super member number or myGov login, bank account details or card number. The calculator does not need them. If you send one to us anyway we will delete it rather than store it.
We do not collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act - health information, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or criminal record. Where the calculator asks about care needs it asks about funding categories, never about a medical condition.
3. What we collect, and why
Information you give us
- Account details - first and last name, email address, and optionally phone, suburb, state, postcode and your relationship to the person entering care. Used to create and secure your account and to deliver what you bought.
- Saved reports - the figures you entered and the results produced, stored against your account only if you choose to save one. Used so you can return to and compare them.
- Purchases - the order, amount, currency, access period and the PayPal transaction reference. Used to grant access, issue receipts and meet our tax and record keeping obligations.
- Correspondence - what you write to us and our reply. Used to answer you and to resolve disputes.
- Email estimates and reviews - the email address you give us to receive a free estimate, and any review you submit for publication.
Information collected automatically
- Technical data - IP address, browser user agent, device type, screen and viewport size, and the referring page.
- Activity data - the pages you open, the order you open them in, time spent on each, how far you scroll, which calculator steps you complete, and which buttons you press. Used to understand where the site is confusing and to improve it.
- Advertising identifiers - where you arrive from an advertisement, the click identifier appended to the link (for example Google's gclid) and any campaign parameters, so we can measure which advertising works.
4. Where the calculation happens
In your browser, on your device. The figures you type into the calculator are processed locally to produce your result. They are transmitted to us only if you choose to save a scenario to your account. If you never save one, we never receive them.
Two exceptions, and both are things you have to choose to do:
- If you ask us to email your free estimate, the headline figure that estimate produced is stored with your email address so the estimate we send you is the one you saw.
- If you use the optional report assistant, the figures in the report you have open are sent to us and on to the service that answers it. That is the only part of this site that sends anything to a third party, and section 5 sets out exactly what does and does not travel.
5. The report assistant
A paid report comes with an optional assistant you can ask questions about your own figures. It is the one part of this site that sends anything to a third party, so it is set out here in full.
It is entirely your choice, and it does nothing until you use it. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you open the assistant and ask a question. If you never open it, this section does not apply to you at all, and the rest of the report works exactly the same.
What is sent when you do ask
- A plain-text summary of the figures in the report you have open - the amounts, categories and comparisons the report already shows you on screen.
- The question you typed, and the questions and answers already in that conversation, so a follow-up makes sense.
What is not sent
- Your name. The name field on the calculator is optional and is used only on your own report cover. It is not part of what the assistant is given.
- Your email address, your account, your phone number or your street address. The assistant is not told who you are, and is given no way to find out.
- Your Medicare number, tax file number, tax file number, super member number or myGov login, bank account or card details - we never hold these in the first place. See section 2.
What travels is a set of amounts and categories. On its own it does not identify anybody, and we do not send anything alongside it that would.
Who processes it
The request is answered by Google's Gemini API, which processes it outside Australia - see sections 10 and 11. We do not train any model on your figures and we have no arrangement permitting anyone to do so; what Google does with data sent to its API is governed by its own terms, which we do not control.
How long it is kept
- The summary of your figures is held in our server's memory for one hour so a conversation does not have to re-send it with every question, and is then discarded. It is never written to our database.
- The conversation itself is stored in your own browser tab and is gone when you close that tab. We do not keep a copy.
- We record that a question was asked, and how long it was, so we know whether the feature is used. We do not record what it said.
Because the assistant is optional, you can have the entire paid report without any of the above ever happening. Nothing in the report is withheld from somebody who never opens it.
6. Cookies and browser storage
We use the following, and nothing else:
- An authentication cookie - set only when you sign in, so you stay signed in. Strictly necessary.
- A guest identifier - so a scenario saved before you register can be attached to your account when you do.
- A session key (browser session storage) - identifies one visit for the activity data described above. It is a random value and is discarded when you close the tab.
- A visitor key (browser local storage) - a random value kept for up to twelve months so we can tell a returning visitor from a new one. It contains no personal information and is not shared with anyone.
- Preferences - your light or dark theme choice.
You can clear or block these through your browser at any time. Clearing them will sign you out and reset your preferences; the site will otherwise work normally.
7. Analytics and advertising
We use Google Analytics and Google Ads to measure how people find and use the site and whether our advertising is worth running. Where these are enabled, Google receives your IP address, device and browser information, the pages you viewed, and - when you complete a purchase - the order reference and the amount paid. Google may set its own cookies and may combine this with data it holds from other sources. Google's handling of that data is governed by its own privacy policy, not ours.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to data brokers, advertising networks other than as described above, super funds, accountants, financial advisers or the ATO, or anyone who might try to sell you something.
You can opt out of Google Analytics using Google's browser add-on, and you can adjust personalised advertising in your Google account settings.
8. Payments
Payments are processed by PayPal. Your card or account details are entered on PayPal's systems and are never transmitted to, seen by, or stored on our servers. We receive only the transaction reference, the amount, the status and the email address associated with the payment.
9. Who we disclose information to
- Service providers who host the site, send our email and process payments, and only so they can perform that function.
- Google, as described in sections 5 and 7.
- Professional advisers - our accountants and lawyers, under obligations of confidence.
- A purchaser of our business, if it is ever sold, on terms that require them to honour this policy.
- Law enforcement, courts or regulators, where we are required or authorised by law.
10. Overseas disclosure
Some of these providers store or process data outside Australia, principally in the United States (Google, PayPal) and, depending on our email provider, in other countries. By using the site you acknowledge that we take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the APPs, but that we cannot control and are not accountable for how an overseas recipient handles it once disclosed, and that you may not be able to seek redress in that jurisdiction.
11. Security
The site runs entirely over HTTPS. Passwords are stored as salted PBKDF2 hashes, not as text anyone here can read. Access to the database is restricted to those who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, but we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
12. How long we keep it
- Account and saved reports - until you delete them or ask us to.
- Order and payment records - seven years, as required by Australian tax law. We cannot delete these earlier, even on request.
- Activity data - up to twenty‑six months, then deleted or aggregated so it no longer identifies anyone.
- Email leads - until you unsubscribe, then only the record needed to honour that unsubscribe.
13. Direct marketing
If you give us your email address for a free estimate we may follow up about the full report. Every commercial email we send identifies us and carries a functional unsubscribe link, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). We action unsubscribes immediately. You will still receive transactional email - receipts, access details and password resets - because those are not marketing.
14. Accessing, correcting and deleting your information
Write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au. We will:
- give you access to the personal information we hold about you, or explain why we cannot;
- correct anything inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading;
- delete your account and every scenario attached to it, subject to the retention periods in section 12.
We will respond within 30 days and will not charge you for making a request. We may need to verify your identity first.
15. Complaints
If you think we have breached the APPs, write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au with "Privacy complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge within 5 business days and respond substantively within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992, or GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.
16. Children
The site is intended for adults deciding how much to put into super in a year their income is unusually high. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
17. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The effective date at the top changes when we do. Where a change is material we will tell you by email or by notice on the site before it takes effect. Continuing to use the site after that means you accept the updated policy.
18. Contact
Privacy Officer
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au
Terms of Service
Plain English, because the whole point is that you understand it. Section 6 is the one that matters most - please read it before you rely on anything here.
1. Agreement
By using calculatedchoices.com.au (the site) or buying a pass you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site. In these terms we, us and our mean XTO Pty. Ltd.; you means the person using the site or, where you use it on behalf of another person or an entity, both you and that person or entity.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a contract. The site is intended for use in Australia and applies Australian law and the published superannuation contribution caps and income tax rates only. If you use it from outside Australia you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for local compliance.
3. What this service is
Catch-Up Super is an information and calculation service. It applies the published superannuation contribution caps and income tax rates to figures you supply and reports what those rules produce, showing its workings and naming the fee schedule used.
4. What it is not
It is not financial product advice, personal advice, legal advice, tax advice, accounting advice or superannuation or taxation advice, and it is not a recommendation to acquire, dispose of or deal in any financial product.
- We do not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence and are not authorised representatives of any licensee.
- We do not know your full circumstances, objectives, financial situation or needs, and nothing produced by the site takes them into account.
- Where the report ranks options it does so on a single arithmetic measure that deliberately ignores everything a number cannot capture - health, family circumstances, tax position, estate planning, which super fund the money goes to, and what actually matters to you.
- We receive no commission and have no relationship with any super fund, accountant, tax agent, financial adviser or the ATO.
You should obtain independent, licensed advice before acting. Any decision you make is yours.
5. Accuracy and estimates
We take considerable care to keep the rates current and the formulas right, and every report prints the schedule it was built on. Even so:
- All output is an estimate based on the figures you entered. If those figures are wrong, incomplete or out of date, the output will be too.
- Your actual unused concessional cap is the figure held by the ATO and shown in myGov, and a deduction is only valid once your super fund has acknowledged the notice of intent you lodge with it. Those prevail over anything the site produces.
- Rates, thresholds and caps change by legislation and indexation, and legislation can change without notice or retrospectively.
- Projections rely on assumptions about the future - investment returns, indexation, home values, length of stay - which are inherently uncertain and will not be accurate.
Always confirm before you act.
6. Your responsibility for decisions
You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for evaluating the output, for verifying it against official sources, for obtaining independent professional advice, and for every decision you make or do not make. We are not your adviser and no fiduciary or advisory relationship arises from your use of the site.
7. Accounts
You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for everything done under your account. Tell us immediately at support@calculatedchoices.com.au if you suspect unauthorised use. We may suspend or close an account we reasonably believe is being used in breach of these terms.
8. Passes, price and payment
- A pass grants access to the full report from the moment payment is confirmed, and it does not expire. It does not renew and nothing is charged automatically. There is no subscription and no card is kept on file.
- Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST where applicable. We may change prices at any time; the price shown when you buy is the price you pay.
- Payment is processed by PayPal under its own terms. We do not receive your card details.
- A pass is for personal or single household use. It is not transferable and may not be shared, resold or used to provide a service to others.
9. Reports you export
A report you export as a PDF or otherwise save remains yours to keep and to show to family, an adviser or a super fund. That licence is personal and non‑commercial. It does not permit republication, resale, or use as part of a product or service you provide to others.
10. Refunds
Our promise: if the calculator cannot properly model your circumstances, or something has gone wrong, write to us within 14 days of purchase and we will refund the pass. No form and no argument. We would rather refund you than have you rely on a number that does not fit.
This is a voluntary commercial guarantee offered in addition to, and it does not limit, your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Refunds are made to the original payment method within five business days of us accepting the request.
11. Acceptable use
You must not:
- scrape, crawl, harvest, mirror or systematically extract the site or its content;
- attempt to access the paid report engine, any account, or any data without authorisation;
- reverse engineer, decompile or attempt to derive the source of any part of the service;
- interfere with the site's operation or security, or impose an unreasonable load on it;
- resell, sublicense or commercially exploit the service or its output;
- use the site to provide financial, legal or placement advice to third parties; or
- use it unlawfully, or to infringe anyone's rights.
12. Intellectual property
All content, code, calculation methodology, report design, text and branding on the site is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by copyright and other laws. Legislated rates and government data are not owned by anyone; our expression, arrangement and implementation of them is. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership to you.
13. Availability
We aim to keep the site available but do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free. We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of it, and may perform maintenance, at any time. If we permanently discontinue the service while your pass is running, we will refund the unused portion.
14. Third parties
The site relies on third party services including PayPal, Google and our hosting and email providers, and links to third party sites and government resources. We are not responsible for those services or sites, their availability, their content or their terms.
15. Australian Consumer Law
Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled to cancel your service contract with us and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law or any other law which cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. If any part of these terms would do so, that part does not apply.
16. Limitation of liability
Subject always to section 15, and to the maximum extent permitted by law:
- the site and its output are provided "as is" and "as available", and we exclude all warranties, conditions, guarantees and representations not expressly set out in these terms, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including as to accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability and non‑infringement;
- we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential loss, or for any loss of profit, revenue, savings, opportunity, goodwill, data, anticipated benefit, or for any loss arising from a decision made or not made in reliance on the site, however arising and whether in contract, tort (including negligence), statute or otherwise, even if we were advised of the possibility;
- our total aggregate liability to you for all claims connected with the site or these terms is limited, at our election, to resupplying the service or to refunding the amount you actually paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose; and
- where liability cannot be excluded but can be limited, it is limited as set out above.
You agree that this allocation of risk is reasonable given the price of the service and that the service is information rather than advice.
Our liability is reduced to the extent your loss is caused or contributed to by you, including by entering incorrect figures, by failing to verify output against official sources, or by failing to obtain independent advice.
17. Indemnity
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you indemnify us against any claim, loss, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the site, or your provision of the site's output to a third party who relies on it. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own breach, negligence or wilful misconduct.
18. Termination
You may stop using the site at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you breach these terms. Sections 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 survive termination.
19. Privacy
Our Privacy Policy forms part of these terms and explains how we handle personal information.
20. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You and we submit to the non‑exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the courts entitled to hear appeals from them.
21. General
- Changes. We may amend these terms. The effective date changes when we do, and material changes will be notified by email or on the site before they take effect. The terms in force when you bought a pass govern that purchase.
- Severability. If a provision is unenforceable it is read down to the minimum extent necessary, or severed, without affecting the rest.
- Waiver. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it.
- Assignment. You may not assign these terms without our consent. We may assign them on a sale of the business.
- Entire agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about the site.
22. Contact
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au