Super Changed on 1 July: What High Earners Need to Reset

Three significant superannuation changes started on the same day, 1 July 2026, and most high earners have not adjusted their thinking to match. They are still running on last year’s numbers, which means decisions made on autopilot this year risk being quietly wrong.

Here is what actually changed, and what is worth checking now that the new financial year is underway.

The caps went up

The concessional contributions cap, the limit on before-tax contributions including employer super, salary sacrifice, and personal deductible contributions, rose from $30,000 to $32,500. For a high earner moving income into super at the 15% contributions rate rather than paying up to 47% outside it, that extra room is one of the cleaner tax differentials still available.

The non-concessional cap, for after-tax contributions, rose from $120,000 to $130,000, and the bring-forward arrangement rose from $360,000 to $390,000 for those eligible. The general transfer balance cap, the limit on what can move into the tax-free retirement phase, rose from $2 million to $2.1 million.

Carry-forward is still available. If your total super balance was under $500,000 on 30 June, you can still use unused concessional cap from the previous five years on top of this year’s amount. For someone with an uneven contribution history, that remains one of the largest single tax deductions in the system.

Payday super began

From 1 July, employers must pay super at the same time as wages rather than quarterly. For most high earners this is a background change, but it is worth knowing your super is now being contributed and invested sooner, and late payments are easier for the ATO to spot.

Division 296 is now law

The additional tax on large super balances commenced on 1 July 2026. It is no longer a proposal. For balances above $3 million, an extra 15% applies to the relevant earnings, taking the effective rate on that slice to 30%. Above $10 million, the extra is higher again. It taxes realised earnings, not paper gains, after the version that would have taxed unrealised gains was dropped. The first assessments relate to this financial year and arrive after 30 June 2027.

What to reset now

Update your contribution plan to the new caps. If your salary sacrifice or personal contributions are still set to last year’s $30,000, you are leaving room unused. Check the numbers against your employer contributions for the year.

Check your carry-forward position. If your balance was under $500,000 on 30 June, pull your unused cap from your ATO record via myGov. This is where the largest deduction is often hiding.

If your balance is near $3 million, model Division 296 properly. It is real now. The response is not to panic out of super, which often remains competitive even at the higher effective rate, but to understand your actual position and plan deliberately with your adviser and accountant.

Do not wait until June. The habit of treating super as an end-of-year task means most people miss most of the year. Contributions and strategy work better spread across twelve months than crammed into the last few weeks.

The Obsidian perspective

Super is where good intentions go to sit unattended. People decide their approach once, then leave it running for years while the rules change underneath them. Three things changed on 1 July, and the quiet cost is not dramatic, it is simply a year of decisions made against last year’s numbers.

The point is not to chase every threshold for its own sake. It is that a plan you do not revisit is not really a plan, it is an assumption. The high earners who handle super well are not the ones with the most aggressive strategy. They are the ones who check that the settings still match the rules, and match the life the money is for. New year, new numbers. Worth an afternoon to reset them properly.

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