Start salary sacrificing

Start putting pre-tax salary into your super now, to avoid sacrifices down the road.

How does salary sacrificing work?

When you “sacrifice” some of your salary, you make an agreement with your employer to pay it straight into your super account, instead of your bank account. This is an amount on top of your employer’s compulsory Superannuation Guarantee payment (9.5% of your salary).

It helps you save money in two ways:

  1. You pay less tax

    Salary in your super account gets taxed at 15% (if you earn less than $250,000) or 30% (if you earn more than $250,000). However, any salary you take home gets taxed at your usual income rate, which can be as high as 47%.

  2. You reduce your taxable income

    The more salary you put into your super, the smaller your taxable income may be – and that could mean even more savings at tax time.

If you sacrifice just $50 a month at age 25, you'll have $175,000 extra by age 65
This graph shows the additional balance a member could have at retirement if they made the specified level of additional contributions to their super account over the next 25 years. For example, if they make a $10 per week pre-tax contribution, their retirement balance would increase by $15,900.
All figures are expressed in today's dollars (discounted using AWOTE, 3.5% pa). Calculations are based on age 40 and salary of $65000, with a retirement age of 65. The calculation includes Superannuation Guarantee increases as currently legislated (9.5% to 12% at FY2026). Investment returns (Balanced option) of 6.5% (net of fees and tax).

Share the love before tax

If you’re an AustralianSuper member, your partner can split their pre-tax super contributions with you.

find out more

Is salary sacrificing right for me?

Setting up salary sacrificing to save more for your retirement might seem like a no-brainer. In addition to considering your debt levels before adding to your super, weigh up the following:

  1. It’s not as effective for low-income earners

    If you earn less than $37,000, you’ll only save a small amount on tax – it’s probably not worth having less in your pocket on payday for a small tax gain.

  2. It may impact your current benefits

    When you salary sacrifice, you change your salary. This means that benefits like holiday loading and overtime might be affected if they’re tied to your salary. To protect your benefits while salary sacrificing, you’ll need to reach an agreement with your employer.

  3. You can’t claim deductions/tax offsets on sacrificed amounts

    You also can't claim sacrificed amounts as fringe benefits tax.

  4. There's a $25,000 limit on Concessional Contributions (including employer contributions)

    Anything above this is taxed at 47%. Your employer may also limit the amount you can sacrifice.

How to get started

If you'd like to start adding more to your super through salary sacrificing, simply download the below form and fill it out with your employer.

Complete this form with your employer and start adding to your super today - pdf, 210KB

Add to your super through your employer

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Add to your super and retire with more - pdf, 252KB

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