How non-concessional contributions work

After-tax contributions (also known as non-concessional contributions) include spouse contributions, after-tax employee contributions and personal contributions for which you do not claim an income tax deduction.

They’re made from your after-tax income, and as a result they generally don’t incur any additional tax when they’re paid into your super account, or when you withdraw them.

There’s a limit to the total amount of non-concessional contributions you can make each year – known as the non-concessional contributions cap.

But by using the bring forward rule, you may be able to contribute more than the cap without paying more tax.

What is the non-concessional contribution cap?

The non-concessional contributions cap is the maximum amount of non-concessional contributions you can make each year, without being subject to additional tax – it covers all your super accounts.

The non-concessional contribution cap is $130,000 for the 2026-27 financial year. The cap is indexed periodically and may increase over time.

This table shows how the non-concessional contributions cap has increased over the past five years.

Financial year starting 1 July	Non-concessional contributions cap
2022	$110,000
2023	$110,000
2024	$120,000
2025	$120,000
2026	$130,000

What is the bring forward rule?

The ‘bring forward rule’ allows eligible members to contribute more than the annual non-concessional contributions cap without incurring excess contributions tax.

Under the bring forward rule, you can ‘bring-forward’ three years’ worth of the non-concessional contribution cap. It means, for example, you can make three years' worth of non-concessional contributions in a single year – that’s $390,000.

The bring forward rule has a few important eligibility rules:

You must be under 75 years of age at any time during the financial year you use it.
Your total super balance must be below $1.84 million on 30 June 2026 to start a three-year arrangement in 2026–27.
If you contribute $390,000 in one financial year, you'll need to wait two financial years to make any further non-concessional contributions. That’s because you’ve made three years’ worth of non-concessional contributions in one go.
You don’t need to bring forward future contributions in one hit. Any amount of the bring forward cap that's unused in the first year can be used in the remaining one or two years.
Once you start a bring forward arrangement, any change to the non-concessional contributions cap due to indexation won’t apply to you. For example, if the non-concessional contribution cap in the second and third year of a bring-forward period changed to $140,000, your non-concessional cap will still be $390,000 ($130,000 × 3 years) and not $410,000 ($130,000 + $140,000 + $140,000).
There is no limit on how many times you can use the bring forward rule throughout your lifetime.
If you have a high total super balance on 30 June 2026, your ability to take advantage of the bring forward rule is limited as shown below:

Total super balance on 30 June 2026	Maximum non-concessional contributions cap	Bring forward period
Less than $1.84 million	$390,000	3 years
$1.84 million to less than $1.97 million	$260,000	2 years
$1.97 million to less than $2.1 million	$130,000	No bring-forward
$2.1 million or more	Nil	Not applicable

Be careful you don’t accidentally trigger a bring forward arrangement

If you’re not careful, you may accidentally trigger a bring forward arrangement if you are eligible to use it.

This is because if you go over the concessional contribution cap, your excess concessional contributions will count towards your non-concessional contributions cap. And if you’ve already maxed out your non-concessional contributions for the year, you may trigger the bring forward rule.

How after-tax super contributions work