How to claim your after-tax contributions as a tax deduction

Soon it’ll be tax time

If you’ve made after-tax contributions to your super, don’t forget that you could potentially claim these as a tax deduction on your tax return. This could reduce the amount of tax you pay for the year.

Whether you make the contributions to boost the super that’s paid by your employer or they’re your main super contributions, you may want to claim them as a tax deduction to save on tax.

How much you can claim

Any voluntary after-tax contributions you make are classed as non-concessional and could potentially be claimed as a tax deduction, but some transactions may limit what you can claim, and your age or income may be factor too.

When you claim a tax deduction on your personal (after-tax) super contributions:

• They'll be treated as before-tax contributions
• This could lower your taxable income and reduce the amount of tax you pay
• Contributions tax of at least 15% will be applied to your super account

If claiming a tax deduction puts you over the before-tax contributions cap, you could end up paying extra tax.

You can only use this deduction to reduce your taxable income to nil – you can’t add to, or create a loss for, your business through contributing.

Everyone’s circumstances are different. Depending on your individual circumstances, you may want to claim the full amount of your after-tax contributions as a deduction, or you may only want to make a partial claim or no claim.

We understand freelance and self-employed members are likely to have a different approach to super. You mightn’t be receiving the super guarantee from an employer on a regular basis, or you might make occasional contributions yourself due to the nature of your work.

How to claim after-tax contributions

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Read our how to claim a tax deduction on personal contributions to super (PDF) fact sheet and form
2. Read it carefully and fill in the form if you decide to claim, and
3. Send it back to us by email or post.

Once you receive a response from us, you can lodge your tax return.

If you haven’t lodged your tax return for the previous financial year and you want to claim a tax deduction for that year, you may still be able to claim – read the fact sheet for more information.