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.

The non-concessional contribution cap is $120,000 for the 2024-25 financial year. This is the most concessional contributions you can make for the financial year – this is across all your super accounts.

If you make contributions above the cap, are under age 75 at any time during the financial year and your total super balance is under $1.9 million (again, across all super accounts as at 30 June 2024), you may be able to ‘bring forward’ up to two years of future after-tax contributions. This may allow you to contribute more than the cap without paying more tax.

Let’s take a look at the non-concessional contribution cap and the bring forward rule.

What is the non-concessional contribution cap?

There is a cap on the amount of non-concessional contributions you can make each year, without contributions being subject to extra tax – from 1 July 2024 the non-concessional contribution cap is $120,000. The non-concessional contribution cap is a 4 times multiple of the concessional contribution cap, and increases in $10,000 increments from time to time. The table below shows how the non-concessional contributions cap has increased over the past five years.

Financial year starting 1 July	Non-concessional contribution cap
2020	$100,000
2021	$110,000
2022	$110,000
2023	$110,000
2024	$120,000

The ‘bring-forward rule’ allows you to make non-concessional contributions over the cap without having to pay extra tax.

Let’s take a look at the details of the bring-forward rule, and use a case study to see how it might be used.

How the bring-forward rule works

The bring-forward rule lets you bring forward your non-concessional cap for up to two financial years.

It means you can make three years' worth of non-concessional contributions in a single year – that’s currently $360,000.

The bring-forward rule has a few important eligibility rules:

You must be under 75 years of age on 1 July of the first financial year you use it.
Your total super balance must have been less than the transfer balance cap[LINK], which was $1.9 million as at 30 June 2024.
If you contribute $360,000 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 a full two years’ worth of 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 $130,000 due to indexation, your non-concessional cap will still be $360,000 ($120,000 × 3 years) and not $380,000 ($120,000 + $130,000 + $130,000).
If you have a high total super balance on 30 June 2024, your ability to take advantage of the bring-forward rule is limited as shown below:

Total super balance on 30 June of previous year	Non-concessional contributions cap for the first year	Bring-forward period
Less than $1.66 million	$360,000	3 years
$1.66 million to less than $1.78 million	$240,000	2 years
$1.78 million to less than $1.9 million	$120,000	No bring-forward period, general non-concessional contributions cap applies
$1.9 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.

This is because if you go over the concessional contribution cap, your excess concessional contributions will count towards your non-concessional contributions cap unless you release them from your super fund. And if you’ve already maxed out your non-concessional contributions for the year, you’ll automatically trigger the bring-forward rule.

Case study: How the bring-forward rule works

Stuart is aged 58 and starting to seriously think about retirement. In fact, he recently sold an investment property for $900,000 to start freeing up some cash.

His most recent super statement indicated his super balance was $1.2 million on 30 June 2024. It’s a good amount, but he’d like to really boost his super over the next few years.

For that reason, Stuart decides to contribute some of the proceeds of his investment property sale into his super fund – to do this, he’ll trigger a bring-forward arrangement.

In the year to 30 June 2025, Stuart makes a non-concessional contribution of $300,000 to his super.

Depending on how things go over the next little while, Stuart can choose to contribute up to another $60,000 at any time over the next two financial years, allowing him to use up his full $360,000 three-year cap.

Think about getting professional advice

Making the most of the bring-forward rule requires a bit of planning and forethought. An adviser can help you create a strategy that maximises the benefits.

How non-concessional contributions work