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Monday42(Newbie)Newbie
28 Aug 2023

Hi ATO Community,


Hope you can help me with this question.


I've arrived in Australia this early this calendar year on a temporary visa, and hope to make it my home permanently. As such I was not in the country for previous financial years, and this is my first year contributing to a super and first year of work.


I can see that I am entitled to remaining carry forward concessional contributions for the financial year just gone (2022-2023). Am I entitled to carry forward contributions from previous financial years also? I can't find the answer to this online, but it seems to indicate that the previous 5 financial years is the metric that matters.


Is this superseded by the fact I am new to the country? Do I have to "generate" the carry forward contributions each year instead?


Many thanks,


Monday42

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SebReiter(Devotee)Devotee
6 Sept 2023

Hi Monday42


I'll make the team responsible for carry forward contributions aware of the confusion that exists in relation to this. Apologies that you're getting the wrong information both here and from our call centre.


Ari provided a link to the website which highlights that amounts are carried forward for the previous five years, including years in which an individual wasn't a member of a super fund.


Again, there are no eligibility conditions in the relevant law in relation to the carry forward amount. If you're comfortable reading law here's a link to Division 291 of the ITAA 1997 which is about excess concessional contributions. 291-20 is the key section. 291-20(6) is where it says what the unused cap space is for a year, and there's nothing there that constrains who receives the cap space.


If you exceed the concessional contributions cap and your Total Super Balance as at the previous 30th June is below $500,000, the system will calculate unused concessional cap space based on the annual cap amounts in each of the previous five years, less any concessional contributions that have been reported for you over those five years.


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SebReiter(Devotee)Devotee
1 Sept 2023

Hi Monday42


No, you don't need to generate unused amounts.


There's nothing in subdivision 291 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 that requires someone to have been employed, or have had a super account, or have lodged an income tax return, or have been an Australian citizen to accrue unused concessional cap space for a financial year.


This is a known issue with how these amounts are displayed on ATO online. The amounts displayed on ATO online won't display unused cap amounts for years where there have been no reported concessional contributions for an individual.


But the processing systems calculate the correct amounts. So even though on ATO online it's showing a lower amount of unused cap space than you actually have, if you contribute more than $27,500 this financial year (and your Total Super Balance as at 30 June 2023 is below $500,000) the ATO's system for determining if you've exceeded the concessional cap will use the correct amounts.


You can call the ATO and they'll be able to provide you with your actual amount of unused cap space over the phone.


I'm an ATO employee voluntarily providing my time here

Liked by nminhptnk and Monday42
Monday42(Newbie)Newbie
2 Sept 2023

@SebReiter Thanks for the clarification. I asked an ato call center agent and they seemed to think it was that I was only entitled to carry forward contributions I generate going forward as in the other replies. Do you know if there's any specific contact I can go to in order to a) get this clarified and b) make it actionable or viewable with my ato account?


Many thanks

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