There are a few weeks left in the 2025-26 financial year, and for high-income earners the window to do anything useful about your tax closes on 30 June. After that you are reporting history, not shaping it.
Most years that deadline is routine. This year it sits in front of a real shift. Division 296, the new tax on large super balances, becomes law from 1 July 2026. The decisions you make in June, particularly around superannuation, now carry into a system that taxes part of your super earnings at up to 30%. The numbers still favour acting. They just favour acting with a clearer head than usual.
This is general information, not advice for your situation. But if your income sits above $190,000 or your super is heading towards $3 million, the next few minutes are the conversation worth having before the year ticks over.
The 2025-26 super and tax numbers that actually matter before 30 June
For the year ending 30 June 2026, the figures high earners should have in front of them are settled and confirmed by the ATO.
Concessional contributions cap: $30,000. This is the cap on before-tax contributions, including your employer’s super guarantee, salary sacrifice, and any personal contributions you claim a deduction for. For someone on the top marginal rate of 47% including Medicare, moving income into super at the 15% contributions rate is one of the few large, legal tax differentials still available.
Carry-forward unused cap: available if your total super balance was under $500,000 at 30 June 2025. This is the one most high earners forget. If you have not used your full concessional cap in any year since 2018-19, those unused amounts stack up and can be used now, on top of this year’s $30,000.
For a professional who has had a few lighter contribution years, that can mean a deductible contribution well into six figures this June. The unused amounts work on a rolling five-year basis, so the oldest slice is genuinely use-it-or-lose-it. The unused cap from 2020-21 expires at the end of this financial year. You can see your exact available amount through the ATO via myGov rather than reconstructing it yourself.
Non-concessional cap: $120,000, or up to $360,000 under the bring-forward rule if your total super balance was under the $2 million transfer balance cap at 30 June 2025. These are after-tax contributions. No deduction, but they move capital into the lower-tax super environment. Worth noting: the concessional cap rises to $32,500 and the non-concessional cap to $130,000 from 1 July 2026, so for some larger non-concessional plans, waiting a few weeks past 30 June changes what you can do.
Division 293 still applies. If your income plus concessional contributions exceeds $250,000, an extra 15% tax applies to those contributions. Super is still well ahead of the 47% you would otherwise pay, but the gap is narrower than many high earners assume, and it matters when you weigh super against other strategies.
Division 296: the change that reframes the whole conversation
From 1 July 2026, an additional tax applies to superannuation earnings for people with a total super balance above $3 million. The detail matters, because the version that passed in March 2026 is meaningfully different from the version debated for two years.
The thresholds. Earnings attributable to the balance between $3 million and $10 million attract an extra 15%, taking the effective rate on that slice to 30%. Above $10 million, the extra tax is 25%. Both thresholds are indexed.
Realised earnings only. The original proposal to tax unrealised gains, paper gains on assets you have not sold, was dropped. The final law taxes realised earnings: interest, dividends, rent inside an SMSF, and realised capital gains, adjusted for contributions and withdrawals. This removes the liquidity problem that had advisers genuinely worried, where a client could face a tax bill on a gain they had not actually banked.
The timing. Division 296 commences 1 July 2026. The first assessments relate to the 2026-27 financial year and arrive after 30 June 2027. Nothing is payable this June. But the planning, particularly for anyone with a self-managed fund, happens now.
The SMSF cost-base reset. Affected funds can elect to reset the cost base of their assets to market value at 30 June 2026, so only growth from that point counts towards Division 296 earnings in future years. It is an all-or-nothing election across the fund’s assets, and getting it right needs your accountant and adviser in the room together. This is a live decision in the months ahead, not something to leave until the first assessment lands.
The honest read: Division 296 affects a small group, roughly the 80,000 Australians with balances over $3 million on Treasury’s estimate. If that is you, the response is not to panic out of super. Even at a 30% effective rate, super often remains competitive against the 47% top marginal rate outside it. The work is modelling your actual position, not reacting to a headline.
What high-income earners should do now
Before 30 June, the moves worth checking against your own position:
Use the concessional cap deliberately, not automatically. Confirm how much room you have once your employer contributions for the year are counted, then decide whether a personal deductible contribution makes sense. Contributions must be received by your fund before 30 June, not merely sent, so the practical deadline is days earlier than the calendar one.
Check your carry-forward position. If your total super balance was under $500,000 at 30 June 2025, pull your unused cap amounts from your ATO record. This is often where the largest single tax saving of the year is hiding for high earners with uneven contribution histories.
Lodge your notice of intent. To claim a deduction for a personal contribution, your fund needs a valid notice of intent acknowledged before you lodge your return. This is the step people miss, and missing it can cost the entire deduction.
Time capital gains and losses with intent. If you have realised gains this year, review whether any loss-making positions are worth realising before 30 June to offset them. The point is the after-tax outcome over time, not tax saved for its own sake.
If your super is near $3 million, model Division 296 before acting. Talk to your adviser and accountant about the cost-base reset and how realised earnings will be calculated for your fund. Decisions made in haste here are expensive to unwind.
The Obsidian perspective
EOFY brings out a particular kind of thinking in high earners: the scramble to save tax for the satisfaction of saving tax. It feels productive. It is often beside the point.
Tax is one variable in a life, not the scoreboard. The contribution that saves you a few thousand dollars this June only matters if it sits inside a plan you actually understand and believe in: what the money is for, when you will want access to it, how it fits the life you are building. A clever EOFY move bolted onto no strategy is just a transaction with good timing.
The clients who handle years like this one well are not the ones with the most aggressive structures. They are the ones who decided in advance what they were optimising for, so that when a deadline and a legislative change land in the same month, they are adjusting a plan rather than reacting to a calendar.
Division 296 is a good example. For most people it changes nothing. For the few it touches, the right response is deliberate and modelled, not fearful.
Knowing which camp you are in, and acting accordingly, is the whole job.
Sources & Further Reading:
- Australian Taxation Office: “Contributions caps” and “Total superannuation balance” (2025-26 thresholds)
- Australian Taxation Office: “Key superannuation rates and thresholds”
- Treasury Laws Amendment (Building a Stronger and Fairer Super System) Act 2026 (Division 296)
- Australian Taxation Office: individual income tax rates 2025-26 and Division 293 tax
Related Obsidian Articles:
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
This article contains general advice only and does not consider your personal objectives, financial situation, or needs. Superannuation and taxation laws are complex and change frequently. The contribution caps, thresholds, and rates referred to apply to the 2025-26 financial year and are subject to change.
The suitability and outcome of any superannuation contribution, carry-forward strategy, or capital gains timing depends on your individual circumstances, including your income, total superannuation balance, age, contribution history, and broader tax position. Eligibility for carry-forward concessional contributions, the bring-forward arrangement, and any deduction depends on conditions being met, including total superannuation balance limits and a valid notice of intent acknowledged by your fund.
Division 296 commences 1 July 2026, with the first assessments relating to the 2026-27 financial year. Its application, including the self-managed superannuation fund cost-base reset election, depends on individual circumstances and requires specialist superannuation and taxation advice.
Thresholds are indexed and may change over time.
Before making any decision about superannuation contributions, capital gains timing, or end-of-financial-year tax planning, you should seek personal advice from a licensed financial adviser and, where relevant, a registered tax agent.
Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Obsidian Wealth Management Pty Ltd is a corporate authorised representative of Lifespan Financial Planning Pty Ltd, Australian Financial Services Licence 229892.
