How super is taxed

Your super scheme is either taxed or untaxed. Tax still applies to both types, but the tax is deducted at different stages:

  • Taxed super funds - deduct tax when money gets added to the fund and earns investment returns
  • Untaxed super funds - only pay tax when money is taken out

Our taxed schemes are GESB Super, Retirement Income Pension, and RI Term Allocated Pension, and our untaxed schemes are West State Super and Gold State Super.

How will your contributions be taxed?

The way your contributions are taxed depends on whether you have a taxed or untaxed fund, and if the contributions are made from before-tax or after-tax income.

Let’s look at before-tax contributions first.

Before-tax contributions

Before-tax contributions are also known as concessional contributions. These are payments made to your super from your income before you have paid tax. Examples include:

  • Employer contributions, like Super Guarantee
  • Salary sacrifice
  • Contributions for which you have claimed a tax deduction, if you are eligible

There are different rules for concessional contributions for taxed and untaxed funds.

Your concessional contributions cap

The general concessional contributions cap for the 2025/26 financial year is $30,0002.

Previous concessional contribution caps:

  • $25,000 for each year from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2021
  • $27,500 for each year from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2024

Carry forward concessional contributions

The carry forward rules allow you to make extra concessional contributions above the general concessional contributions cap without having to pay extra tax. If you have a total super balance of less than $500,000 on 30 June of the previous financial year, you can use your 'carry forward' unused concessional contributions cap amounts from up to five previous financial years.

Unused cap amounts are available for five years and if they have not been used, they will expire. For example, if you made $15,000 in concessional contributions in each of 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 you will have a carry forward amount of $62,500 that you can access from 2025/26. The 2020/21 unused cap amount of $10,000 that is not used by the end of 2025/26 will expire.

Concessional contributions to West State Super and Gold State Super

If you’re a West State Super or Gold State Super member, you have an untaxed scheme. This means your before-tax contributions are not capped, but they count towards your cap when making these contributions to a taxed scheme. For example, if you made $27,500 in concessional contributions to West State Super (including your employer contributions), you wouldn’t be able to make any further concessional contributions to a taxed scheme in that financial year.

With West State Super and Gold State Super, there’s an untaxed plan cap of $1.865 million2 per super fund, which applies to the untaxed element of your benefit. This is the amount that can be paid as a lump sum or transferred to a taxed fund and still be subject to tax concessions.

Benefit estimate

For a breakdown of the taxed and untaxed components of your account, call your Member Services Centre on 13 43 72 or use Live chat and ask for a ‘benefit estimate’.

After-tax contributions

After-tax contributions are also called non-concessional contributions. These are contributions you make to your super from your income after you’ve already paid tax, such as personal contributions or spouse contributions.

Since you’ve already paid tax on your income, there is no further tax for contributions you make to your super in this way.

Your non-concessional contributions cap

If you’re a GESB Super or West State Super member, your non-concessional contribution cap for the 2025/26 financial year is:

  • $120,000 per year
  • If you’re under 75 at any time in the financial year, you may be able to bring forward one or two years of contributions i.e. $120,000 plus $240,000, giving you a cap of $360,000 over three years1

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

Other contributions

If you transfer super from other funds, a 15% tax is applied to the untaxed element3 and no tax on the taxed element.

If you’ve received an Australian Government Super Co-contribution in the past, no tax applies to these contributions.

Do we have your tax file number?

If you don’t provide us with your tax file number (TFN), you might need to pay more tax on your super than is necessary and we may not be able to accept some of your contributions. This will also affect your eligibility for the Super Co-contribution.

You can lodge your TFN using Member Online, by completing a Tax file number form or by calling your Member Services Centre on 13 43 72.

Learn more about how your super is taxed

Read our Tax and super brochure for more details on how your super is taxed, including:

  • Tax that applies to investment earnings
  • Tax on benefits including lump-sum benefits and death benefits
  • Other considerations including Division 293 tax for high income earners

Read Tax and super

More information

Need help

  • Call us on 13 43 72

1 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.
2 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.
3 Up to the untaxed plan cap of $1.865 million for the 2025/26 financial year.

Page last updated 19 September 2024

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 22 June 2026.