Australia Superannuation Calculator (SG, Concessional Cap Carry-Forward & Retirement Projection)

This calculator is built specifically for the Australian superannuation system and shows every figure in Australian Dollars (A$). It is not a US 401(k) or IRA calculator, and it does not use USD. Superannuation is Australia's compulsory, tax-advantaged retirement savings system: your employer is legally required to contribute a percentage of your Ordinary Time Earnings (the Superannuation Guarantee, or SG) into a super fund of your choice, where it is invested and taxed concessionally until you reach your preservation age and meet a condition of release.

Three settings drive almost every projection this calculator produces, and all three have moved recently:

1. The Superannuation Guarantee rate is now 12%. It reached this, its final legislated level, on 1 July 2025, the last step of a multi-year phase-up from 9.5% that started in 2021. It stays at 12% for 2026-27 and is not scheduled to rise further under current law.
2. The concessional (before-tax) contributions cap is A$30,000 for 2024-25 and 2025-26, rising to A$32,500 from 1 July 2026. This is the combined ceiling on employer SG, salary sacrifice, and personal deductible contributions, taxed at a concessional 15% inside the fund rather than at your marginal income tax rate.
3. Preservation age is now a flat 60 for everyone. The old sliding scale (55 for anyone born before July 1960, stepping up in stages) finished phasing in on 1 July 2024. Every Australian now has the same preservation age, though accessing your super still requires meeting a genuine condition of release (retirement after preservation age, reaching 65, or a small number of other conditions).

This calculator projects your balance year by year to your chosen retirement age, applies the current SG rate and contributions tax, and lets you model extra voluntary contributions and the 5-year concessional cap carry-forward rule described below.

Employer contribution. Each year, your employer contributes 12% of your Ordinary Time Earnings (salary, in this simplified model) as SG. This calculator does not separately cap this at the SG maximum contribution base (A$270,830 for 2026-27) - if your salary exceeds that figure, treat the SG contribution as a slight overstatement and reduce it manually, since no SG is mandated on earnings above that base.

Voluntary contributions. Any additional salary-sacrifice (concessional) or after-tax (non-concessional) contributions you specify are added on top of employer SG.

Contributions tax. All concessional contributions (employer SG plus any salary sacrifice) are taxed at a flat 15% inside the fund as they are received - this calculator deducts that tax before adding the net contribution to your balance, exactly as your fund actually does.

The concessional cap and 5-year carry-forward. Your standard annual concessional cap is A$32,500 (2026-27). If your Total Super Balance was below A$500,000 at the end of the prior financial year, you can also use unused concessional cap space from up to the preceding 5 financial years, on top of this year's standard cap - a genuinely powerful catch-up mechanism for people who took time out of the workforce, were self-employed with lower contributions, or simply want to make a large one-off contribution (for example, after a redundancy payout or an inheritance). This calculator asks for your current balance as a stand-in for your Total Super Balance and for the total unused cap you're carrying forward, then adds it to the standard cap if you're eligible.

Excess contributions. If your total concessional contributions in a year exceed the applicable cap (standard cap plus any carry-forward), this calculator still adds the full contribution to your balance (that's what actually happens inside the fund) but flags the excess separately - excess concessional contributions are included in your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate, less a 15% offset for the contributions tax already paid, plus an interest charge. This calculator does not model that additional personal tax; it only flags that an excess occurred.

Compounding. Each year's net contribution is added at year-end, and the whole balance compounds forward at your assumed annual return using the platform's shared time-value-of-money engine - the same compounding engine used across every growth-projection calculator on this site.

Take the default scenario: a 35-year-old earning A$100,000 a year, an existing A$80,000 balance, 3% assumed annual salary growth, a 7% blended annual investment return, retiring at 60 (a 25-year horizon), receiving only the 12% employer SG with no extra voluntary contributions.

Year 1: SG contribution = A$100,000 x 12% = A$12,000. Contributions tax = A$12,000 x 15% = A$1,800. Net contribution to the fund = A$10,200. Starting balance A$80,000 grows to A$95,800 by year-end (A$80,000 x 1.07 + A$10,200, since the return compounds on the opening balance and the contribution lands at year-end).

By year 25 (age 60): Total contributions (gross, before the 15% tax) reach approximately A$437,511.18. Total contributions tax paid over the period is approximately A$65,626.68. Total investment growth is approximately A$832,392.10. The projected final balance is approximately A$1,284,276.60.

Because salary is only A$100,000 growing modestly, the SG contribution (A$12,000 in year one, rising each year with salary) never comes close to the A$32,500 concessional cap in this example - no carry-forward or excess-contribution flag is triggered. Someone earning substantially more, or adding a large salary-sacrifice amount, would need to watch the cap much more closely.

• The SG maximum contribution base. SG is only mandatory up to A$270,830 of Ordinary Time Earnings per employee for 2026-27; this calculator applies the flat 12% to your full entered salary regardless of size.
• Investment fees, insurance premiums inside super, and government co-contribution or spouse contribution offsets - none are modeled.
• The excess-concessional-contributions personal tax charge - this calculator flags an excess but does not calculate the additional marginal-rate tax and interest charge that applies outside the fund.
• Div 293 tax (an additional 15% tax on concessional contributions above A$250,000 income) - see the Australia Division 293 & FHSS calculator on this site if that applies to you.
• Career breaks, job changes, or part-year employment - this model assumes continuous, single-employer earnings growing at one steady rate.
• Sequencing/market-timing risk near retirement, smoothed over by a single blended return assumption.
• The Total Super Balance proxy. This calculator uses your current balance as a stand-in for your official TSB; if you hold multiple accounts, your actual TSB (visible in ATO online services) may differ.

• Assuming the concessional cap is still A$27,500. That was the cap through 2023-24. It has been A$30,000 since 1 July 2024 and rises to A$32,500 from 1 July 2026 - a common source of outdated advice.
• Forgetting the carry-forward rule has a Total Super Balance gate. You cannot use unused cap space from prior years if your Total Super Balance was A$500,000 or more at the end of the previous financial year, no matter how much unused cap you've accumulated.
• Confusing preservation age with pension eligibility age. Preservation age (now a flat 60) is when you may be able to access super at all; it is not the same as the Age Pension eligibility age (67), and accessing super before genuinely retiring still requires meeting a condition of release.
• Treating the 7% (or any) return assumption as guaranteed. Superannuation returns depend entirely on your fund's actual asset allocation and market performance in any given year.
• Not checking your SG is actually 12%. Some older award agreements or employment contracts still reference outdated SG percentages from before the phase-up completed; check your payslip against the current 12% rate.

• Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rate reaching 12% on 1 July 2025 and the 2026-27 maximum contribution base of A$270,830: superguide.com.au "Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions rate and rules" and rest.com.au "Super Contribution Caps (2026/2027)", both fetched directly, 2026-08-22.
• Concessional contributions cap (A$30,000 for 2024-25/2025-26, A$32,500 from 2026-27) and the 5-year carry-forward rule (Total Super Balance below A$500,000 at the prior 30 June, up to 5 preceding years' unused cap): rest.com.au, fetched directly.
• Preservation age fully phased in to 60 from 1 July 2024: superguide.com.au "Preservation age", fetched directly.
• Contributions tax rate (15% on concessional contributions): Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, standard long-stable figure.
• NOTE: ato.gov.au blocked automated fetch (HTTP 403) for every relevant primary page attempted this session; the figures above were cross-verified across at least two independent secondary sources each rather than against the ATO page directly. Verify against ato.gov.au before relying on this for a specific financial decision.