There is a limit to the amount of money you can voluntarily contribute into your super fund on a concessional basis. Superannuation contribution limits operate to limit the tax benefits available each year.
Making contributions over the limits results in additional tax payable, and excess concessional contributions are counted towards the non-concessional cap.
Concessional contributions are essentially those contributions which are tax deductible, and include employer contributions and personal contributions claimed by the self-employed.
The current concessional contributions cap, regardless of age is $27,500 per annum.
If you are older than 67 you will need to meet a work test to contribute to super in most cases. You need to work for at least 40 hours during 30 consecutive days at any time during this financial year to make tax deductible and non-deductible contributions to super.
Non-concessional contributions are those made from after-tax income. There is no contributions tax applied when they are contributed to the super fund.Once in the fund, the normal fund tax rates apply to earnings
The non-concessional contributions cap is $110,000. It then follows that $330,000 can be contributed over the three-year fixed period under the 'bring forward rule'.
If you have a total superannuation balance of close to $1.6 million, you are only able to access the bring forward rule for the number of years that would bring your balance to $1.6 million. Once you trigger the bring forward rule and your balance reaches $1.7 million you can’t make any further non concessional contributions even if you still effectively have not fully used up the remaining of the bring forward cap triggered.
If you triggered the bring forward rule before 2016/17 but the full $540,000 was not contributed, you will be limited to a transitional bring forward cap.
If you are over the age of 65 you cannot utilise the ‘bring forward’ rule, even if you meet the work test.