Tax on contributions

Concessional contributions (usually these are your employer contributions and any salary sacrifice contributions you make) are taxed at a lower rate (a ‘concessional’ rate) when compared to an average person’s marginal tax rate.

The current concessional tax rate that applies to these kinds of contributions is 15%.

When these contributions are received to your ElectricSuper account, we take the 15% tax out to pay directly to the Australian Taxation Office on your behalf.

Concessional contributions are subject to an annual cap. If you contribute more than the annual amount to your super in a year, there may be additional tax to pay. We have more information on these rules below. See the current year’s caps on the ATO website.

Non-concessional contributions (these are usually post- or after-tax contributions but may also include concessional contributions that exceed the annual concessional contributions cap) are not taxed when paid into ElectricSuper, typically because they’ve already been subject to income tax.

There is an annual cap on the amount of non-concessional contributions you can receive to your super accounts without being penalised with extra tax. See the current year’s caps on the ATO website.

When you roll your super in from another super fund, the tax conditions that applied to the money while it was in the other account will still apply when it is received by ElectricSuper.

This means that any money you had already paid 15% contributions tax on while it was in the other fund will not be taxed again when it comes into ElectricSuper.

It also might mean that any money you had not paid tax on, but which needs to be taxed at some point, will remain untaxed with a status of “taxable untaxed” and will be taxed at the appropriate rate when you take money out of ElectricSuper when you reach a Condition of Release (such as retirement).