I have a question regarding eligibility for carry-forward concessional contribution caps for personal deductible super contributions.
Background
I plan to make a personal contribution to my super fund before the end of the 2025/26 financial year and submit a Notice of Intent to Claim a Tax Deduction, so the contribution is treated as a concessional contribution.
I started salary sacrificing this financial year and want to:
- fully utilise my concessional cap for 2025/26, and
- use any unused carry-forward concessional caps from 2020/21 before they expire.
Relevant timeline:
- December 2020: My Australian permanent resident visa was approved while I was still living in Germany.
- November 2021: I moved to Australia.
- February 2022: I started working in Australia, joined a super fund, and began receiving Super Guarantee contributions.
- Recently: I became an Australian citizen.
When I log into myGov → ATO → Super → Information → Carry-forward Concessional Contributions, the 2020/21 year shows “no information available,” which makes sense because I had no super contributions that year. However, that year is not included in my total available carry-forward amount.
I have received conflicting information:
- My super fund told me they can only process deductible contributions from the period when I was a member of the fund. So they couldn't do it for 2020/2021
- An ATO phone representative told me I can only claim carry-forward amounts from years in which I received Super Guarantee contributions.
- However, I found ATO Community forum posts where ATO representatives stated that unused caps from years with no contributions are still available even if not member of a fund.
Note: I fulfill all other eligibility criteria mentioned on the ATOs website such as super balance < 500k, age, etc.
Questions
- Am I eligible to use the unused concessional cap from 2020/21 in these circumstances?
- When a concessional contribution exceeds the current year’s cap, who determines which unused carry-forward year is applied first (it is the oldest, but can my fund say they can't use that year because i wasn't member, in other words who decides the valid oldest year, fund or ATO?)
- Can a super fund refuse to acknowledge a Notice of Intent to Claim a Tax Deduction on the basis that they believe insufficient concessional cap space is available?
- If the ATO applies the carry-forward amounts differently from what I expect (for example using 2021/22 instead of 2020/21), is there a review or appeal process?
- Who would I have to talk to to get a definite 100% answer, or who makes the decision in this case? Can I consider the ATO members response on the forum as 100% accurate for my circumstance?
Any insight from tax professionals or people with similar experiences would be highly appreciated.
Thank you very much community!
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