The Government limits how much super you can transfer into pension accounts such as Vanguard Super SpendSmart. This is called the transfer balance cap and it’s a lifetime limit.

For the 2025-26 financial year, the transfer balance cap is $2.0 million. If you started a pension with any superannuation fund after 1 July 2017, your personal transfer balance cap will be between $1.6 million and $2.0 million.

You can see how you’re tracking towards your personal cap through the ATO services tab of your myGov account. If the amount you transfer into your account exceeds the cap, the ATO will send you a request to withdraw the excess from your account. If you do not respond, the ATO may request us to withdraw an amount on your behalf.

If we receive a notice from the ATO, we will attempt to contact you. Where we’ve tried without success to contact you, we will transfer the amount into a Vanguard Super SaveSmart account (our super account) on your behalf within 60 days of receiving the notice from the ATO – we will invest the amount in investment options that resemble the investment choice you made for your Vanguard Super SpendSmart account as closely as possible.

Note, you may incur tax penalties on your excess amount for the time it is there and any investment earnings on amounts that are returned to a super account will be taxed. Visit the ATO’s website at ato.gov.au to find out more about the cap and how it works.

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