Contribution planning for 2017/18 and following years

In respect of the 2017/18 and following financial years, contribution planning will be dominated by:

• ensuring that you fully utilise your concessional contributions cap;
• ensuring that any shortfall in the concessional contributions cap can be utilised by making sufficient “catch up” concessional contributions (whether member or employer contributions) within the permitted five year carry forward period;
• judicious management of your total superannuation balance by ensuring that:

• all payments from any pension account which are in excess of the minimum payment requirement – are paid as a result of a commutation of the pension (commutations payments are debits to the transfer balance cap which in turn will reduce the total superannuation balance);

• ensuring that ordinary non-concessional contributions are paid before CGT non-concessional contributions;

• by withdrawing amounts from accumulation interests to be under the $1.6m cap (whether pursuant to an unrestricted release condition or by commencing a transition to retirement pension, if an unrestricted release condition is not satisfied).