Salary sacrifice

Making extra contributions from your before-tax salary is a great way boost your super and potentially pay less tax

Salary sacrifice is where you get your employer to pay part of your before-tax salary into your super. It's easy to set up and by contributing a little each pay, you'll hardly notice a difference.

Benefits

By salary sacrificing you can:

Save on tax

Contributing from your before-tax salary reduces your taxable income, potentially reducing how much tax you pay.

Grow your super

Making regular contributions to your super over time can make a big difference to your end balance.

Set and forget

Start automatic regular contributions and let your super grow in the background without having to think about it.

How it works

You can nominate how much you want to contribute each pay cycle and your employer will pay this on top of the legislated 12% super guarantee (SG) contributions for 2025-26.

Instead of paying tax at your marginal income tax rate, you’ll generally pay 15% contributions tax on your money as it goes into super.

However, if you earn less than $62,488 in 2025-26, and make an after-tax contribution instead you may be eligible for a government co-contribution.

Learn more about after-tax contributions

Know your limit

There's a cap on how much you can contribute before-tax and if you go over, you may have to pay more tax.

Contribution limits

See for yourself

Try our Spare change calculator to see how making extra contributions could boost your super.

Launch calculator

Start contributing

Salary sacrifice is set up through your employer, so have a chat to your payroll team. Usually, it’s as simple as sending an email letting them know how much you would like to salary sacrifice per pay.

Example email template

Hi Payroll

I'd like to arrange to have extra contributions made to my CareSuper account through salary sacrifice.

I request the deduction of the amount shown below from my before-tax pay on a regular basis.

I authorise payroll to transfer my salary sacrifice contributions to CareSuper.

Employee name: Enter your name
Amount each pay period: Enter a dollar amount
Please start my salary sacrifice from this date: Enter a date (DD MM YYYY)
Fund name: CareSuper ABN 74 559 365 913
Super fund USI: MTA0100AU

I understand that this request remains in force until I advise payroll of any change.

I'm aware of the concessional contributions cap of $30,000.

I'm aware that pay rises or bonuses will impact the total amount of contributions that my employer is required to pay under super guarantee legislation.