By Paul Feeney, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Otivo
Every year, a batch of Australians make a super contribution in the last week of June, feel organised about it, and discover months later that the ATO counted it against the following year's cap. The money arrived. The date it arrived was the problem. Timing is the quiet mechanic underneath almost every contribution rule in super, and it works differently for you than it does for your employer — a gap that widened on 1 July 2026 when payday super started. Here's which date actually decides the year, and the three deadlines that hang off it.
A super contribution counts in the financial year your fund receives it, not the year you send it. A payment made on 29 June that lands on 2 July counts towards the next year's caps. As at August 2026, the general concessional contributions cap is $32,500 for 2026–27, set by the ATO and covering all concessional contributions combined.
Why does the date your fund receives a contribution matter?
A contribution is counted in the financial year the super fund receives the money, not the year the payment leaves the sender. The ATO applies this rule consistently, and it has real consequences at both ends of a financial year.
Electronic transfers are where it bites. A BPAY or bank transfer initiated on a Friday afternoon in late June can take several business days to clear into a fund's account. If it lands on 1 July, it belongs to the new year — which can leave someone with an unintentionally small contribution in the year they were planning around, and an unintentionally large one in the year they weren't.
The same rule can work the other way. Someone who has unused concessional cap space they want to use before it expires needs the money inside the fund by 30 June, not merely sent by then.
The three dates that matter
Most contribution timing problems come down to three dates. Getting them in the right order is most of the work.
- The date the fund receives the contribution. This sets the financial year, and therefore which year's cap the contribution counts against.
- The date a notice of intent to claim a deduction is lodged with the fund, if a deduction is going to be claimed for a personal contribution. This has its own deadline, covered below, and it is not 30 June.
- The date the fund acknowledges that notice. A deduction can't be claimed until the fund has acknowledged the notice in writing.
Miss the first and the contribution lands in the wrong year. Miss the second or third and the contribution still counts towards the cap, but the deduction is gone.
What is the deadline for a notice of intent to claim a deduction?
Where someone intends to claim a tax deduction for a personal contribution, a valid notice of intent to claim a deduction must be lodged with the super fund before the earlier of two dates: the day they lodge their tax return for the financial year the contribution was made, or the end of the financial year after the contribution year. Both limbs apply, and whichever comes first is the deadline.
That second limb catches people who assume they have plenty of time. A personal contribution made in March 2027 sits in the 2026–27 year, so the outer deadline is 30 June 2028 — but if the 2026–27 tax return is lodged in September 2027, the deadline was September 2027.
The fund then has to acknowledge the notice before the deduction can be claimed. It's an administrative step, not a formality that can be skipped, and funds can take days to process it.
One point of precision worth keeping straight. Avoid thinking of a personal contribution as something that has to come from a particular pot of money — what matters is that it's a contribution made in the member's own name, and that "personal contributions" as a category exclude salary sacrifice.
How does payday super change when employer contributions arrive?
From 1 July 2026, employers must have super guarantee contributions paid within seven business days of payday. That replaced the old quarterly system, where SG was due 28 days after the end of a quarter — which is why a 2022-era article would have told you not to worry if your super hadn't appeared a week after payday. That advice is now out of date.
For a 34-year-old on $95,000 paid fortnightly, the practical effect is that roughly $438 in SG should now appear in their super account within about a week and a half of each pay, rather than potentially sitting with the employer for up to four months. The ATO also has real-time visibility of late payments.
What payday super did not change is the member-side rule. A voluntary contribution made by an individual still counts in the year the fund receives it. Two different deadlines now sit side by side: a seven-business-day obligation on employers, and a received-by-30-June reality for everyone making their own contributions.
How does one cap cover several kinds of contribution?
The concessional contributions cap is a single combined limit. Employer super guarantee, salary sacrifice arrangement and personal contributions for which a deduction is claimed all count towards the same figure — $32,500 for 2026–27, up from $30,000 in 2025–26 as a result of indexation to average weekly ordinary time earnings in $2,500 steps.
Treating these as three separate allowances is the single most common way people exceed the cap without meaning to. Someone with an employer paying $11,400 in SG has $21,100 of the 2026–27 cap left for everything else, not a fresh $32,500.
The $32,500 figure is the general cap rather than an absolute ceiling. Members eligible for carry-forward can have a higher effective cap in a given year.
How does carry-forward interact with timing?
Carry-forward has been available since 1 July 2018. The mechanics are straightforward:
- Unused concessional cap amounts can be carried forward for up to five financial years.
- Unused amounts are used oldest-first.
- Anything unused after five years expires.
Eligibility is a separate question, and all three of these conditions have to be met:
- Total super balance below $500,000 on 30 June of the prior financial year.
- Unused concessional cap space in one or more of the previous five financial years.
- Eligible to make super contributions — generally under age 75, with funds able to accept contributions up to 28 days after the end of the month the member turns 75.
The timing angle here is expiry. The 2020–21 window has now closed. The next amount to expire is unused 2021–22 concessional cap space, which lapses on 30 June 2027. For anyone planning to use older cap space, the contribution has to be received by the fund before that date — not merely sent before it.
Where the timing rules catch people out
Three patterns come up repeatedly.
The June transfer that clears in July. Fixed by working to a self-imposed mid-June cut-off rather than 30 June.
The deduction claimed before the notice is acknowledged. The contribution counts; the deduction doesn't, until the fund confirms in writing.
The tax-efficiency assumption that doesn't hold at the top of the income scale. Where combined income and concessional contributions exceed $250,000 in a financial year, an additional 15% tax applies to concessional contributions above that threshold, bringing the total to 30% rather than 15%. This is Division 293 tax, and "income" for the threshold includes taxable income, reportable fringe benefits, net investment losses and the concessional contributions themselves. At 30%, those contributions are still taxed concessionally for anyone on the top marginal rate — it changes the maths rather than reversing it.
Frequently asked questions
Does a contribution count when I send it or when my fund receives it?
When your fund receives it. The ATO counts a contribution in the financial year the money reaches the fund. A payment sent on 29 June that clears on 2 July counts towards the following year's caps.
Is the notice of intent deadline 30 June?
No. A valid notice must reach the fund before the earlier of the day the tax return for that year is lodged, or the end of the financial year after the contribution year. Stating it as 30 June alone is wrong in both directions.
Did payday super change my own contribution deadlines?
No. From 1 July 2026 employers must have SG received by the fund within seven business days of each payday, but voluntary contributions made by an individual are still counted in the year the fund receives them.
What happens if I go over the concessional cap?
An excess concessional contribution is included in assessable income and taxed at the individual's marginal rate, with a 15% tax offset for the tax the fund has already paid. An excess concessional contributions charge also applies, and up to 85% of the excess can be released from the fund by election.
Where can I check how much cap I've used?
Concessional contributions reported by funds appear in ATO online services through myGov. Because funds report on their own cycles, the figure can lag actual contributions, particularly close to 30 June.
Timing is one of the few parts of super that's fully within a person's control, which is what makes it worth getting right. Otivo provides regulated digital financial advice under AFSL and Australian Credit Licence No. 485665, and its contributions advice takes account of income, age, existing employer contributions and household cash flow when looking at how a contribution strategy might work. Customers who follow Otivo's advice in full could be better off by $180,356 on average with optimised contributions, in today's dollars by retirement. Working out what's actually available to contribute usually starts with the budget planner.
Sources
- Australian Taxation Office, Concessional contributions cap, 2026–27
- Australian Taxation Office, Notice of intent to claim or vary a deduction for personal super contributions
- Australian Taxation Office, Paying super on payday, effective 1 July 2026
- Australian Taxation Office, Maximum contributions base, 2026–27
- Australian Taxation Office, Division 293 tax
Disclaimer
The information in this communication is current as at August 2026 and has been prepared by Otivo Pty Ltd ABN 47 602 457 732, AFSL and Australian Credit Licence No. 485665. This content is general information only and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not personal financial or taxation advice and should not be relied on as such. Before acting on any information, you should consider its appropriateness having regard to your personal circumstances. This material must not be reproduced in whole or in part, or posted on any social media platform, without the prior written consent of Otivo Pty Ltd.