Spouse contributions

Boost your partner's super by making contributions to their account.

Spouse contributions are designed to help couples boost the super balance of the partner who may not be working, is working part-time or is on a lower income.

Making spouse contributions can be a powerful way to ensure that your partner's super balance keeps growing if they are:

• On maternity leave
• Taking time out of the workforce to study
• Not working or working part-time to look after kids or family members
• Not working due to medical reasons
• Between jobs.

In Australia, many women retire with significantly lower super balances than their male counterparts. One of the main reasons is that many women's working lives are interrupted by maternity leave and time off, or working part-time, to raise their family.

Setting up a spouse contribution during these periods is an important step to ensuring all Australian women retire with sufficient super savings.

How the spouse contribution works

If you are married or in a defacto relationship and your partner earns less than $40,000 per annum, you can make after-tax contributions to their super account. Any contributions you make will count towards their after-tax (non-concessional) contribution cap.

The spouse making the contribution will receive a 18% tax offset on up to $3,000 of after-tax contributions if the receiving spouse’s annual income is less than $37,000. A partial rebate applies if the receiving spouse earns between $37,000 and $40,000 per year.

General eligibility conditions:

• You and your spouse must be Australian residents at the time the contribution is made and must be living together at that time
• The contribution must be made to either a complying super fund or an approved retirement saving account
• The contribution is not deductible by you.

It does not matter if either spouse is employed or not.

Spouse contributions cannot be received by the fund once the receiving spouse turns 75. Find out more about restrictions and age limits for contributions.

How to make spouse contributions

To make contribution to your spouse's Media Super account, simply complete the Spouse contribution (PDF) and return it along with a cheque for the nominated amount.