Personal injury contributions

These contributions are not subject to any contribution cap.  Consequently, they can be made whether or not the relevant member has exhausted their non-concessional contributions cap, the bring-forward cap or the CGT non-concessional contributions cap.  Further, personal injury contributions are not counted when determining the member has exhausted any of the other contribution caps.

In relation to the determination of the total superannuation balance of a member, any personal injury contributions while forming part of the member’s accumulation or pension interests (and, therefore, counted in the value of the total superannuation balance) are then expressly deducted from their total superannuation balance.  However, any earnings on personal injury contributions are not deducted from their total superannuation balance.   

This treatment of personal injury contributions means that personal injury contributions are not counted when determining whether the total superannuation balance exceeds $1.6m and therefore do not affect the ability to make ordinary non-concessional contributions.  In contrast, as CGT non-concessional contributions are not deducted from the total superannuation balance, CGT non-concessional contributions will affect the ability to make ordinary non-concessional contributions.