Q&A: What to consider with unused concessional contribution tax claims?

Q: The bring forward concessional contributions tax claims. Are they still available and any other matters associated with such a tax claim?

A: I think this is a really important area, and I’m really glad that someone’s asked a question on this. Again, I covered this in a prior month’s webinar on the year end issues. Again, more than happy to go over this today as well. To do this question justice, I first just want to have a look at the contribution types and the contribution rules. Why I say that is I think that the bring forward concessional contribution rules are something that a lot of us can make use of, and we may not be aware of them.

Let’s just quickly start with concessional contributions. So these are the contributions that we’re making to super, essentially with pre-tax money. The employer contributions, our super guarantee contributions, our salary sacrifice contributions, or contributions that we make to super personally, where we claim a tax deduction, these are the concessional contributions that go in and get included in the fund’s accessible income. And then that income is taxed 15%. So, these are the contributions which are subject to contributions tax on contribution.