Here’s how you can get your money inside super.

If you’re a homeowner preparing for retirement, you may be looking to downsize your large family home to something more manageable.

The Australian Superannuation system provides some generous concessions for ‘up and coming’ retiree’s who wish to put more money into the LOW TAX super environment, upon sale of their family home.

The question is, what can you do with your surplus funds following sale of your previous primary residence?

For starters, you can use a downsizer contribution strategy to contribute up to a maximum of $300,000 to super ($600,000 total for a couple).

However, there are some rules that you must satisfy to be able to take advantage of this:

• Minimum age of 55, with no maximum age limit.
• Must have owned the property for a consecutive period of at least 10 years.
• It must be your family home or main residence at the same of the sale, and it must be in Australia.

Also of importance, is that you must make the downsizer contribution within 90 days of settling the property sale and you must provide your super fund with an ATO downsizer contribution form before making the contribution to super.

Following the use of the downsizer contribution strategy, you can also take advantage of your non-concessional contribution caps. Each individual can contribute up to $110,000 per financial year, or $330,000 using your available caps from the future 2 financial years. Note, there are some eligibility rules for this type of contribution to super also.

You can also use your available concessional caps, up to a maximum of $27,500 per financial year or potentially more if you have unused concessional caps from previous financial years. This type of contribution can be extremely beneficial, as a concessional contribution from personal cash can be used to claim a tax deduction for you in that financial year. Note, there eligibility rules for this also, however is out of scope for this article.

The above briefly outlines the different ways to get your money inside super following a windfall from a sale of your primary residence. Getting your funds inside super is an advantageous way of investing your wealth in a tax-effective environment and providing for your retirement.

Note, this is general advice only. If you require personal advice or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the head of our financial advice team Christine Hallowes, at [email protected] or 4320 0500.