Spouse Super Contribution Tax Offset Calculator Australia

What the spouse super contribution offset does

A spouse super contribution is money you pay from your own after-tax income into your partner's superannuation account, and the tax offset is the reward for doing it. It is one of the smaller incentives in the Australian system, but it is also one of the easiest to claim and one of the few that directly rewards evening up two retirement balances rather than growing one.

The mechanics are simple. A fixed percentage of an eligible contribution comes off your income tax, up to a maximum. The complication is the word eligible, because the amount that qualifies depends entirely on how much your spouse earns, and it disappears completely once their income passes the cut-out.

This calculator resolves that in one step. Enter the contribution, your spouse's income and your own taxable income, and it shows the offset you can claim, how much of the contribution earned it, and what the whole exercise costs you net.

Who the offset is aimed at

The design intent is a household where one partner has stepped back from paid work. Career breaks for children, part-time work, study, illness or caring responsibilities all produce the same pattern: a couple with one healthy super balance and one that has stalled.

Super is an individual asset. It does not pool between partners, and the balance gap that opens during a career break rarely closes on its own. The spouse contribution offset is a modest nudge towards closing it, and it is worth reading alongside contribution splitting, which moves employer contributions across rather than new money.

Eligibility is straightforward on the personal side. You need to be spouses, including de facto, living together, both Australian residents, and the contribution has to be made from after-tax money to a complying fund in your spouse's name. What is not allowed is claiming a tax deduction for the same contribution, since you cannot have the deduction and the offset for one payment.

How the spouse income test works

This is the part people get wrong, and it is worth being precise about.

The offset is not calculated on your contribution. It is calculated on an eligible contribution base, and that base shrinks by one dollar for every dollar of spouse income above the lower threshold. Below the threshold the full base applies. Between the threshold and the cut-out, the base is the full base less the excess income. From the cut-out upwards, the base is nil.

Two things follow. First, a contribution larger than the base earns nothing extra. If your spouse's income has cut the base in half, contributing the full amount gets you the same offset as contributing half of it, and the rest is simply money in super with no offset attached. The calculator separates the contribution within the base from the part beyond it so this is visible.

Second, the income being tested is not the figure on their tax return. It is assessable income plus reportable fringe benefits plus reportable employer superannuation contributions. That last item matters. A partner who salary sacrifices heavily can have a low taxable income and still fail the test, because the sacrificed amount is added back for this purpose. Use the broader figure in the calculator, not the taxable income.

The two caps that can cancel the offset

Even when the income test is passed, two superannuation rules can remove the offset entirely.

The first is your spouse's total super balance at 30 June of the previous financial year. If it was at or above the general transfer balance cap, the offset is not available. This is the rule that catches couples where the lower earner nonetheless has a large balance, perhaps from an inheritance or an earlier career.

The second is your spouse's non-concessional contributions cap. The money is treated as their after-tax contribution, so it consumes their cap, not yours. If they have already used the cap this year, or if your contribution would push them over it, the offset is lost and the excess contribution creates its own tax problem.

The calculator applies both tests and reports the offset that would have been available as denied by the caps, so a zero result is never ambiguous.

The offset is non-refundable

The last constraint is on your side of the ledger. This is a non-refundable tax offset, which means it reduces the tax you owe but never turns into a refund of its own. It also cannot reduce the Medicare levy, only income tax.

If your income tax for the year is smaller than the offset, part of it is simply lost. It does not carry forward to a future year and it is not paid out. That situation is more common than it sounds, particularly for a retiree making a contribution for a younger spouse, or in a year with large deductions.

The tool calculates your income tax after the Low Income Tax Offset, caps the spouse offset at that figure, and shows any wasted amount separately. If the wasted amount is large, the contribution may still be a good idea on retirement grounds, but it should be judged on those grounds rather than on a tax benefit that will not arrive.

Reading the results and what to do next

The headline figure is the offset entitlement. Beneath it, the offset you can actually use tells you what will show up in your assessment, and the net cost is the contribution less that amount.

The immediate return on the contribution restates the offset as a percentage. At the full offset on the full base it is a strong first-year return by any standard, and it is the single most persuasive number in the results. It falls quickly as the eligible base shrinks, which is exactly why sizing the contribution to the base rather than to a round number is worth a minute of arithmetic.

The projection at the bottom shows what repeating the contribution each year could be worth in the fund at your chosen return. It is a straightforward compounding of the contributions only, with no allowance for fund fees, insurance premiums or investment earnings tax, so treat it as an upper bound rather than a forecast.

Before contributing, check with the fund that it accepts spouse contributions and that your spouse meets the age and work conditions, and keep the payment receipt for your tax return.

These figures are an estimate for planning, not financial or tax advice. Contribution rules, caps and thresholds change, and your circumstances may differ, so confirm anything material with your fund, a licensed adviser or the ATO before you act.

About This Tool: Spouse Super Contribution

Spouse super contribution: use this tool to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official ATO guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.