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R2 Assessable personal contributions

Last updated 28 July 2020

Show at R2 the total assessable amount of personal contributions. The trustee of a fund is to treat personal contributions as assessable contributions only if the contributor has provided a valid notice stating their intent to claim a deduction for their contributions.

From 1 July 2007, the self-employed and other eligible individuals can claim a full deduction for superannuation contributions provided the following conditions are met.

  • A person can deduct personal contributions, even if they receive some income as an employee. Personal contributions will be deductible if less than 10% of the sum of a person's assessable income and reportable fringe benefits are attributable to employment as an employee. The test will no longer be determined by the level of employer superannuation support a person receives or was entitled to have received.
  • If the person was 75 years of age or over on 30 June 2008 and the contributions were made on a day that was on or before 28 days after the end of the month in which they turned 75.
  • If the person was under the age of 18 years on 30 June 2008, the person must have derived income in 2008-09 from carrying on a business or from employment as an employee.
  • To be eligible for the deduction, the person must have given notice to the trustee of a fund of their intention to claim a deduction before lodging a tax return for the income year in which the contribution was made or the end of the income year following the year in which the contribution was made. The person must also have received an acknowledgment from the trustee of receipt of the notice.

The self-employed person can claim a deduction only in the income year in which the contribution is made.

Other personal contributions that are included in the fund's assessable income include:

  • the untaxed element of a rollover superannuation benefit that a member is taken to receive under section 307-15 of the ITAA 1997, to the extent that it is not an excess untaxed rollover amount - an amount will be an excess untaxed rollover amount if it exceeds $1.045 million
  • the untaxed element of rollover superannuation benefits of a complying superannuation fund that arose as a result of the complying superannuation fund ceasing to be a constitutionally protected fund during the income year or at the end of the previous income year
  • the taxable component of a directed termination payment within the meaning of section 82-10F of the Income Tax (Transitional Provisions) Act 1997.

R2 is used to determine R Assessable contributions.

Contributions caps

Caps apply to contributions made to a member's superannuation account from 1 July 2007. Amounts written at R1 and R2 are taken into account in calculating whether the relevant caps have been exceeded. Contributions that exceed the cap amounts are subject to extra tax. The member will receive an 'excess contributions tax assessment' which will detail how much extra tax the member must pay.

The amount of the cap, and how much extra tax the member must pay on the amount in excess of the cap, depends on the age of the member (such that certain transitional arrangements can apply) and whether the contributions are concessional or non-concessional contributions.

For more information on the contributions caps, see Super contributions - too much can mean extra tax.

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