Boost your joint retirement income

Sharing your superannuation contributions with your spouse could boost your joint retirement income.

How much can you split?

You can split before-tax (concessional) contributions, including employer and salary sacrifice contributions made over the financial year after the end of the relevant financial year. 

You can also split concessional contributions made during the current financial year if your entire benefit is to be rolled over or transferred to another super fund or paid out to you by the end of the financial year.

The maximum amount of the financial year’s concessional contributions that can be split is the lesser of:

• 85% of concessional contributions for that financial year, and
• the concessional contributions cap.

Please note:

• Contribution splitting does not reduce the contributions originally made for the member for reporting and contribution cap purposes.
  
• Your application must be made in the approved form.
  
• Contribution splitting is only allowed in respect of certain contributions made in to your accumulation account or your accumulation component.

Who can receive your split contributions?

Contributions can be split with a spouse who is:

• under preservation age (currently 55), regardless of whether they’re working or not, or
• between preservation age and 65 and who is not permanently retired.

Contributions cannot be split with a spouse aged 65 or over.

A spouse in relation to a UniSuper member means:

• a person to whom you are legally married
• a person, whether of the same or opposite sex, with whom you are in a relationship that is registered under an Australian State or Territory law, and
• a person, whether of the same or opposite sex, with whom you are in a relationship and not legally married but who lives with you on a genuine domestic basis as a couple.

Refer to the Super contribution splitting with your spouse fact sheet for more information.

How to split your contributions

To split contributions made between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011, you must lodge a Contribution splitting application form with UniSuper by 30 June 2012.

If you do not transfer these contributions by 30 June 2012, you will not be able to transfer them in future.