Some important super rate and threshold changes took effect on 1 July 2025 that could impact your retirement planning. Here’s a quick overview of the key changes, along with some opportunities and traps to consider.

Superannuation Guarantee rate has increased

Your employer must contribute a minimum percentage of your ordinary time earnings to super under the Superannuation Guarantee (SG). This percentage has risen from 11.5% to 12%.

While most employees will now receive more super, if you’re under a ‘total employment cost’ arrangement, your cash salary may reduce to offset the increased SG payments.

If you’re also making salary sacrifice or other concessional super contributions, you should make sure the higher SG rate doesn’t tip you over the cap that applies to all concessional super contributions. That cap is $30,000 per annum but may be higher if you’re eligible to make ‘catch-up’ concessional contributions.

Maximum income for SG contributions has reduced

The maximum quarterly income on which employers must pay SG contributions has reduced from $65,070 to $62,500. This income threshold is known as the ‘maximum contribution base’ and it equates to an annual income of $250,000. If you earn $62,500 or more per quarter from an employer in 2025/26, your annual SG contributions will top out at $30,000, which is the annual cap on all concessional contributions.

Transfer balance cap has increased

The general ‘transfer balance cap’ (TBC) – which limits how much super you can transfer into tax-free ‘retirement phase pensions’ over your lifetime – has increased from $1.9 million to $2 million. You may be able to take advantage of this increase if you have a large super balance and:

• are yet to start a retirement phase pension
• have started a retirement phase pension, but haven’t used all your available cap, or
• have started a ‘transition to retirement pension’ and will be able to fully access your super before 30 June next year.

Thresholds that limit non-concessional super contributions have increased

A popular and effective way to add larger sums of money to your super is to make non-concessional contributions (NCCs).

These are after-tax super contributions that can be made from your take-home pay, your savings, or other sources such as a windfall, inheritance or sale of a property or other investment.

The total super balance (TSB) thresholds that determine eligibility to make NCCs increased on 1 July this year (see table below). This increase provides more opportunity to make NCCs if you have a high super balances. For example, to make NCCs of up to $360,000 in 2025/26, your TSB on 30 June 2025 could have been less than $1.76 million (an increase of $100,000 from $1.66 million in 2024/25). Other conditions apply.

Your TSB is the total of all amounts you have in superannuation, including accumulation account balances, retirement phase pension balances and certain other amounts less any structured settlement contributions.

Seek advice

Your Shadforth financial adviser can help you understand what these changes mean for you and the implications they may have for your super and retirement planning.