West State Super and tax

West State Super is an untaxed scheme.

Unlike most other Australian super funds, West State Super does not pay tax on any contributions or investment earnings that your super account receives while it accumulates. You will only be taxed when you access the money in your account. Untaxed does not mean ‘no tax’, so it can be useful to think of it as deferred tax.

Tax applies in different ways to different types of contributions

Here is a guide to how tax applies to your West State Super contributions. While the Australian Government provides concessional tax rates to help you use your super to save for retirement, there are some limits, known as caps. For more information, please read the West State Super product information booklet.

West State Super and tax

West State Super and tax
Contribution type General treatment Contribution caps for 2025/26 financial year

Concessional (before-tax) contributions 

  • Employer contributions, such as Superannuation Guarantee (SG) and salary sacrifice

No tax applies when the contribution is made.

You are only taxed at the time you access your benefit including when you:

  • Withdraw your benefit at retirement
  • Transfer your super to a retirement income stream such as an allocated pension
  • Roll over to a taxed fund
  • Withdraw funds under the First Home Super Saver (FHSS) scheme

If you are a high-income earner and your income and low tax contributions exceed $250,000 then you may be liable for Division 293 tax.

This is an annual cap that limits the amount of concessionally taxed contributions you and your employer can make each financial year.

Concessional contributions made to constitutionally protected funds, such as to West State Super and Gold State Super, also count towards your concessional contributions cap, but are not capped within those schemes.

That is, the annual cap does not limit the amount of concessional contributions that you can make to a constitutionally protected fund. However, since contributions to a constitutionally protected fund count towards your annual cap, they do limit your ability to make further concessional contributions to other non-constitutionally protected super funds.

For example, if you made $30,000 concessional contributions to West State Super (including your employer contributions) you would not be able to make any further concessional contributions to a taxed scheme in that financial year (assuming you have no unused concessional contributions cap carry forward amounts available).

An untaxed plan cap of $1.865 million4 per super fund applies to the untaxed element of your benefit in Gold State Super and West State Super. This is the amount that can be paid as a lump sum or rolled over to a taxed fund and still be subject to concessional tax treatment.

Non-concessional (after-tax) contributions

  • Personal contributions you don’t claim as tax deduction (i.e. from your after-tax salary)
  • Spouse contributions

No tax applies up to your non-concessional contributions cap.

Non-concessional contributions can only be made within the cap if your total super balance is less than $2 million on 30 June of the previous financial year.

Your non-concessional contributions cap is:

  • $120,0005 p.a. or
  • If aged under 75 at any time in the financial year, you may be able to bring forward one or two years of contributions depending on your total super balance on 30 June of the previous financial year. If your total super balance is less than $2 million you can bring forward two years of contribution i.e. $120,000 plus $240,000, giving you a cap of $360,000 over three years6.

The amount available under the bring-forward rule depends on your total super balance as at 30 June in the previous financial year.

For more information, visit the ATO website.

If you make contributions to super over your cap then you may have to pay extra tax.

Other contributions

Non-concessional (after-tax) contributions:

  • Rollovers containing an untaxed element
  • Government co-contributions
  • Downsizer contributions
  • No tax applies when the contribution is made. You are taxed at the time you withdraw your benefit or rollover to a taxed fund
  • No tax applies to Government co-contributions or downsizer contributions

Find out more about downsizer contributions.

Factor tax into your retirement planning

If you’re planning for your retirement and considering taking your super out as a lump sum or transferring it into an allocated pension, you need to be aware of the tax that applies in those scenarios.

For a breakdown of your tax components i.e. taxed vs untaxed, call your Member Services Centre on 13 43 72 or use our Live Chat and ask for a ‘benefit estimate’.

Find out more about how tax applies on benefits.

Service periods before 1 July 1983 may impact your benefit

If you have an eligible service period that started before 1 July 1983, this may impact how much tax is payable when you access your West State Super benefit. Find out more about Pre-1 July 1983 service and tax.

1 SuperRatings Smart database as at 31 March 2025. Based on an average balance of $50,000, fees for the My West State Super option, the My GESB Super option and the RI Allocated Pension Balanced option are below the industry median. Fees includes administration, investment, and transaction fees and costs. Fees may change periodically.
2 This includes lost and unclaimed account transfers to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
3 If you are a Gold State Super member and currently employed in the WA public sector, you may be eligible to open a West State Super account, provided you have pre-1 July 1983 service.
4 For the 2025/26 financial year, indexed annually in line with Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings, in increments of $5,000 rounded down. The untaxed plan cap applies for each untaxed scheme you are a member of. The cap is a per super fund limit, and it is reduced by the total amount of each untaxed element in the fund that you have received from that fund.
5 For the 2025/26 financial year, indexed annually. This cap is equal to four times the general concessional contributions cap (which is currently $30,000).
6 The amount available under the bring-forward rule depends on your total super balance as at 30 June in the previous financial year. Where the bring-forward rule has been triggered, the future years' entitlements are not indexed and the contributions must be made before you turn 75 or within the 28 days following the end of the month in which you turn 75 years old. For more information, please read the Contributing to your super brochure.

Page last updated 16 February 2026

Thank you for printing this page. Remember to come back to gesb.wa.gov.au for the latest information as our content is updated regularly. This information is correct as at 23 June 2026.