Superannuation is often a household strategy—not just an individual one. If your partner’s super balance is lagging behind, you may be able to top it up and score a tax offset of up to $540 at the same time by making a spouse contribution.
In this article, we break down how spouse contributions work, who is eligible, and how to implement this simple yet powerful strategy.
What is a Spouse Contribution?
A spouse contribution involves making a voluntary non-concessional contributions to your spouse’s superannuation account. This strategy not only boosts your spouse’s retirement savings but may also provide you with a tax offset of up to $540, depending on your spouse’s income and the contribution amount.
For the 2025/26 financial year, the spouse contribution tax offset applies when your spouse’s income is below $40,000, with the maximum offset available if their income is $37,000 or less.
Calculating your Entitlement
The income assessed for this purpose includes assessable income, reportable fringe benefits, and reportable employer super contributions. The table below outlines the calculation:
| Spouse’s income | Tax offset entitlement |
|---|---|
| Up to $37,000 | $540 (maximum) |
| $37,001 – $39,999 | $540 reduced by 18 cents for every $1 over $37,000 |
| $40,000 and above | Nil |
As illustrated above, the maximum contribution that qualifies for the offset is $3,000. Contributions beyond this amount will not increase your entitlement.
Eligibility
Before making spouse contributions, ensure you and your spouse meet the following criteria:
- Age Restrictions: The receiving spouse must be under 75 years old when the contributions are made.
- Income Threshold: The receiving spouse’s income (including assessable income, reportable fringe benefits, and reportable employer super contributions) must not exceed $40,000.
- Contribution Cap: The receiving spouse must not exceed their non-concessional contributions cap. Their Total Super Balance must be less than the Transfer Balance Cap ($2 million for 2025–26) as at 30 June of the previous financial year.
- Residency: You and your spouse must be Australian residents and living together on a permanent basis at the time of the contribution.
Steps to make a Spouse Contribution
Once you have confirmed you and your spouse meet the eligibility criteria, making the contributions is relatively easy. Simply follow the below:
- Contribute to Super: Make a contribution to the spouse’s account. It is best to contact your super fund for specific instructions, such as forms, BPay details, or reference codes, ensuring the contribution is clearly marked as a spouse contribution.
- Claim the offset in your tax return: When completing your tax return, indicate you’ve made a spouse contribution and provide the necessary details to claim the offset. There is a specific section in your tax return for this.
Benefits of a spouse contribution
The key benefits to making a spouse contribution include the following:
- Tax Offset: Receive a tax offset of up to $540, the equivalent to an 18% risk-free return on contributions of $3,000 where eligible for the maximum entitlement.
- Boost Retirement Savings: Transition funds into superannuation, where they can grow in a tax-effective environment.
- Increase Age Pension Entitlements: For couples where one spouse is under Age Pension age, super in that spouse’s accumulation phase is generally exempt from Centrelink’s assets test, which may help increase the older partner’s Age Pension entitlement.
Considerations and Risks
While spouse contributions offer significant advantages, it’s essential to understand the potential risks:
- Preservation Rules: Contributions are locked in super until a condition of release, such as reaching preservation age and retiring, is met.
- Legislative Changes: Superannuation rules can change, which could impact your retirement strategy, particularly if you’re far from retirement age.
- Excess Contributions Penalty: Exceeding your non-concessional contributions cap, including any bring-forward amounts, can result in a tax penalty of 47% on the excess amount, plus associated earnings.
- Super Fund Suitability: Before putting any additional money into superannuation, you want to ensure you understand (and are comfortable with) the investment strategy and fee structure within your super fund.
- Do not lodge a notice of intention to claim form: You, nor your spouse, must not claim a tax deduction for the spouse contribution. If you do, it becomes a concessional contribution and disqualifies you from receiving the tax offset.
The Guided Investor approach
At Guided Investor, we see spouse contributions as a smart, often underutilised way to balance super between partners while scoring an immediate tax benefit.
We assess the suitability of spouse contributions from Phase 2 of our Wealth Creation process, where strategies to optimise long-term retirement outcomes start to take shape.
