Superannuation
Salary sacrifice calculator
Sacrificing $10,000 from a $120,000 salary cuts your tax by $3,300.00. The fund pays $1,500.00 in contributions tax, so you are $1,800.00 ahead overall — and that money is in super, not in your pocket until preservation age.
Net benefit a year
$1,800.00
after the 15% contributions tax
| Tax without sacrificing | $30,120.00 |
|---|---|
| Tax after sacrificing | $26,820.00 |
| Tax saved | +$3,300.00 |
| Contributions tax (15%) | −$1,500.00 |
| Net benefit | $1,800.00 |
| Take-home pay falls by | $6,700.00 |
| Over the cap, taxed as income | $0 |
| Division 293 (included above) | $0.00 |
Sacrificing past the cap does not save tax. The excess is added back to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate, with a 15% offset for what the fund already paid.
Why the benefit is not simply your marginal rate
Money you sacrifice is not taxed at your marginal rate, but it is not tax-free either — the fund pays 15% contributions tax on the way in. Your gain is the gap between those two rates. On a 30% marginal rate you keep about 15c in the dollar; at 45% you keep about 30c. Below the 15% marginal rate there is no gain at all, and sacrificing can leave you worse off.
The caps that matter
| Limit | 2026-27 | What happens if you exceed it |
|---|---|---|
| Concessional cap | $32,500 | Excess is added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate, less a 15% offset. No interest charge since 2021-22. Includes your employer's 12%. |
| Division 293 threshold | $250,000 | An extra 15% on concessional contributions above the threshold, so the effective rate becomes 30%. |
| Non-concessional cap | $130,000 | After-tax contributions. Separate from the concessional cap. |
| Maximum contribution base | $270,830 | Your employer need not pay super on qualifying earnings above this for the year. |
Note the cap includes your employer's compulsory 12%. On $120,000 that is already $14,400, leaving $18,100 of room before you sacrifice anything.
Division 293 halves the benefit for high earners
If your income plus concessional contributions exceeds $250,000, an additional 15% applies to the contributions above that threshold. The effective contributions tax becomes 30%, so a 45% marginal taxpayer keeps 15c in the dollar rather than 30c. The threshold has never been indexed and has not moved since 2017.
Things this does not model
- Carry-forward of unused cap from earlier years, which could make a contribution concessional that we show as excess.
- Reportable fringe benefits and net investment losses, which count towards the Division 293 income test.
- Government co-contribution and the low income super tax offset.
- Investment returns, fees or insurance premiums inside the fund.
- Preservation. This money is locked away until you meet a condition of release.
Estimate only, not financial advice. Superannuation projections are regulated separately from generic calculators, which is why this page shows a single-year comparison rather than a long-horizon forecast. This calculator is not intended to be relied on for the purposes of making a decision in relation to a financial product; consider advice from a licensed provider. Methodology.