Division 293 Tax Calculator 2026-27

Division 293 tax is an extra 15% on concessional super contributions for people whose combined Division 293 income and contributions pass $250,000 in 2026-27. It sits on top of the 15% the fund already deducts, taking the rate on the affected contributions to 30%. It is charged on the lesser of the excess over the threshold or the taxable contributions.

The point of it is to narrow the gap between the concessional rate and the top marginal rate. Under the 2026-27 tax brackets a top-bracket dollar is taxed at 45% plus the Medicare levy, and a concessional contribution is taxed at 15% inside the fund. Division 293 doubles that fund-level rate to 30% for high earners, which still leaves a gap, just a smaller one. Nothing about it changes what your employer withholds from your pay: it arrives later, as a separate assessment after you lodge.

The threshold has sat at $250,000 since 2017-18. The ATO publishes it in a table headed "2017-18 onwards" rather than printing a row for each year, so there is no separate 2026-27 figure to look up, and three other ATO pages restate $250,000 without a year qualifier.

Three steps. Add your Division 293 income to your Division 293 super contributions. Subtract $250,000 from that total to get the excess. Multiply 15% by whichever is smaller, the excess or the contributions. The threshold and the rate have both applied since 2017-18 and both apply for 2026-27.

The ATO publishes one worked example of the core calculation. Reproduced in full:

Jan's Division 293 income is $240,000 and Division 293 super contributions are $15,000. This is a total of $255,000. Division 293 taxable contributions are the lesser of Division 293 super contributions ($15,000) or the amount above the $250,000 threshold ($5,000). Jan's Division 293 tax payable is 15% of $5,000. So the Division 293 tax payable is $750.

Which arm of that test binds decides how your bill behaves. The calculator names the binding arm in its results, because it is the difference between a bill that grows with every extra dollar and one that has already stopped.

Not just taxable income. Add total reportable fringe benefits, net financial investment loss, net rental property loss and the net amount family trust distribution tax has been paid on. Subtract super lump sum taxed elements taxed at zero and any assessable first home super saver released amount. Reportable super contributions are excluded, which is where most calculators go wrong.

The ATO sets this out as a seven-line formula, and publishes the same formula a second time for software developers with the tax return labels attached. Both versions agree.

The ATO defines this as the same income calculation used for the Medicare levy surcharge, disregarding any reportable superannuation contributions. If you have already worked out your income for surcharge purposes, take your reportable super contributions back out and you have your Division 293 income. The neighbouring concept, adjusted taxable income, is a different test again and is used for family assistance and offsets rather than this one.

One-off events that push people over

Most first Division 293 notices arrive in a year that was not typical. The ATO names four triggers: an eligible termination payment, a back payment of salary or wages covering the current or an earlier year, a capital gain, and any other reason your income rises. If a redundancy payment or a large bonus is landing this year, run the numbers before you top up your super, not after.

Your concessional contributions across every fund, which means employer super guarantee, salary sacrifice, personal contributions you claim as a deduction, and amounts your employer pays from your before-tax income such as insurance premiums or administration fees. Excess concessional contributions are taken back out, because they are taxed as income instead.

The full ATO list of concessional contributions:

• Employer contributions, including employer super guarantee contributions, any superannuation guarantee charge shortfall the ATO collects, and salary sacrificed contributions
• Additional before-tax contributions your employer makes under an agreement, award or industrial instrument, and other amounts paid from your before-tax income such as administration fees and insurance premiums
• Personal contributions you are entitled to claim and have claimed as an income tax deduction
• Paid parental leave superannuation contributions
• Notional taxed contributions to defined benefit and constitutionally protected funds
• Unfunded defined benefit contributions
• Some amounts allocated from a fund reserve that form part of the fund assessable income
• Amounts transferred from a foreign super fund where the assessable amount exceeds the vested amount at the time of transfer
• For people over 18, contributions made by a parent, child, relative, friend, a separated spouse or any third party other than an employer or your spouse

Excess concessional contributions move sideways, not away

Go over your cap and the excess leaves the contributions side of the Division 293 test. It does not disappear. The ATO includes excess concessional contributions in your assessable income, taxed at your marginal rate less a 15% offset for the tax the fund already paid. Assessable income feeds taxable income, and taxable income is the first line of Division 293 income, so the amount simply crosses to the other side of the same test.

That matters for how you use the calculator. If your taxable income figure comes off a lodged return or a notice of assessment, the excess is already inside it. If you are estimating from salary, it is not. The calculator never adds it for you, and it shows the excess as its own line so you can check.

The ATO has no discretion here

Unlike excess contributions, the ATO cannot disregard or reallocate contributions for the Division 293 calculation. If you apply successfully to have excess concessional contributions disregarded or reallocated to another year, they keep their concessional treatment and are added back into the Division 293 calculation. A win on one front is not a win on this one.

The general concessional contributions cap is $32,500 for 2026-27, up from $30,000, and it moves in $2,500 steps indexed to average weekly ordinary time earnings. Carrying forward unused cap from up to five earlier years raises your individual cap if your total super balance was under $500,000 at 30 June. Every dollar inside the higher cap still counts for Division 293.

Carry-forward eligibility runs on two conditions: a total super balance below $500,000 at 30 June of the previous financial year, and unused cap amounts from up to five previous years. Unused amounts expire after five years, the oldest is used first, and the ATO applies them automatically once you exceed the general cap.

Then comes the sentence people miss. The ATO states that where your concessional cap has increased through carried-forward amounts, all contributions inside that higher cap are counted for Division 293 purposes. Catch up $70,000 in one year and you have $70,000 on the contributions side of the test, not $32,500. Example 4 below runs that case. If you are planning a catch-up year, the salary sacrifice calculator shows what the contribution costs you in take-home pay, and this page shows what it costs you in Division 293 tax.

The common shape is an income sitting just under $250,000 with contributions that push the total over, so the excess arm binds and the bill is small. It grows fast, because every extra dollar of income and every extra dollar of contributions both lift the excess.

Work the same person off taxable income alone and you get a combined figure of $265,000, an excess of $15,000 and a bill of $2,250. Put the reportable fringe benefits amount where the ATO puts it and the bill doubles to $4,500. That single omission is the difference between the two calculators currently ranking for this search and a correct answer.

Example 6 is the excess contributions case. Taxable income of $237,500 already includes the $7,500 of excess as assessable income, contributions of $40,000 sit against a $32,500 cap, so Division 293 contributions come back to $32,500, combined reaches $270,000, the excess over the threshold is $20,000 and the tax is $3,000.

If you are liable, the ATO issues an Additional tax on concessional contributions (Division 293) notice once it holds both your tax return and your fund contribution report. Lodge through myTax and it goes to your myGov inbox. Pay it yourself, or elect within 60 days to release the money from super. The election cannot be reversed.

The notice waits on the slowest input. If you hold more than one fund and the second reports after you lodge, an amended Division 293 assessment can follow. Amended determinations are generally issued within six weeks of the ATO receiving the updated reporting.

Paying from super

The election form lives in ATO online services under Super, then Manage, then Division 293 election. A tax agent can lodge it through online services for agents. The 60-day window gives you time to decide, and the ATO is explicit that it does not move the payment due date printed on your notice, so paying late while you think about it still attracts interest. This page does not state a due date in days, because the ATO does not publish one: it refers only to the date on your assessment.

Once the ATO has a valid election it sends your nominated fund a release authority. The fund has 10 business days to pay the ATO and report the release through SuperStream. Anything released beyond the Division 293 liability is applied to other tax debts and Australian Government debts first, and only then refunded to you.

If the assessment looks wrong

Incorrect assessments usually trace to a mistake in the tax return or in the contribution amounts your fund reported. Check both figures on the notice. Correct the return or take the contribution figures up with your fund, and the Division 293 tax updates automatically. If it is still wrong after that, lodge an objection.

Former temporary residents

If you received a departing Australia superannuation payment you can apply for a refund of Division 293 tax using the approved form, Division 293 Tax, refund or debt release application for former temporary residents (NAT 74727). The refund is the sum of all payments you made towards Division 293 assessments while you were a temporary resident. Payments made after becoming a permanent resident are not refunded.

This calculator does not model defined benefit interests. Your fund works out a notional contribution actuarially, based on the annual increase in your account, and reports it to the ATO. You are still assessed for Division 293 tax, but payment is deferred to a debt account until an end benefit is paid from that fund. Unpaid balances attract interest each 30 June.

No public constant produces the notional contribution figure, so no calculator can generate it honestly. Read it off what your fund reports and enter that as your contributions if you want an estimate. A debt account is created for each defined benefit account, and a statement of account issues whenever the balance changes. Voluntary payment before 30 June avoids the end of year interest, which is charged at the average 10-year Treasury bond rate for the year. The ATO has not published a rate later than 2024-25 as at 30 July 2026, so we do not quote a current one.

The end benefit triggers payment. A rollover to a successor fund on a merger, a severe financial hardship payment, a compassionate grounds release and a family law super payment are not end benefits. Your fund must notify the ATO within 14 days of the earlier of receiving your request or the benefit becoming payable, using the end benefit notice form (NAT 74728). The debt account discharge liability is the lower of the balance in the debt account and the end benefit cap, and it is due 21 days after the day your benefit was paid. The end benefit cap is 15% of the employer-financed component of the part of the super interest that accrued after 1 July 2012.

Exemptions this page names but does not model

State higher-level office holders who make certain contributions to a constitutionally protected fund are exempt from Division 293 on those contributions. The list covers state ministers and their staff, state governors and their staff, members of a state parliament, the clerk of a house of a state parliament, heads of state public service departments and statutory office holders of equivalent seniority, and judges, justices and magistrates of a state court. Fall into the category at any point in the income year and you are treated as being in it for the whole year.

The mechanic is worth a sentence, because it is not a plain exemption. Those contributions are excluded when working out the taxable contributions, but included when testing whether the threshold was exceeded. Justices of the High Court and judges of courts created by the parliament who contribute under the Judges' Pensions Act 1968 are treated the same way. Neither case is modelled here.

Division 293 taxes contributions going into super when your income plus contributions passes $250,000. Division 296, which is now law and starts on 1 July 2026, taxes earnings on a total super balance above $3 million, with a further 10% on the proportion of earnings above $10 million. You can pay one, both or neither.

Division 296 thresholds are indexed, the $3 million threshold in $150,000 increments and the $10 million one in $500,000 increments. Individuals excepted from it include a child recipient of a super income stream at any time in the income year, someone who received a structured settlement contribution for personal injury in that year or an earlier one, and someone who dies during 2026-27.

This page does not calculate Division 296. The tax runs on a proportional earnings formula and on a new total super balance value concept introduced by the same legislation, neither of which is modelled anywhere on this site. The ATO page linked in the sources below is the place to work it out.

The levers are thin. Contributions inside your cap still count, carried-forward amounts still count, and the ATO has no discretion to disregard or reallocate contributions for Division 293. What you can control is timing across financial years, and whether a one-off event lands in the same year as a large contribution.

Salary sacrifice still comes out ahead for most people above the threshold, just by less. Our guide to reducing PAYG tax covers the levers that work on withholding through the year, and the salary sacrifice calculator shows the take-home trade at your income. Anything structural, a self managed fund, a defined benefit interest, or a contribution strategy across several years, belongs with a licensed financial adviser rather than a calculator.