Australia Downsizer Super Contribution Calculator

If you are 55 or older and sell a home you or your spouse owned for 10 years or more, you can contribute up to A$300,000 of the proceeds into super — A$600,000as a couple — outside the normal contribution caps. This tool runs every ATO condition against your dates and ages, works out your ceiling, and counts the days left in the 90-day window.

The downsizer measure lives in section 292-102 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. It lets older Australians move money from a home sale into superannuation without it touching the concessional or non-concessional contribution caps. Because it sidesteps those caps, the eligibility conditions are strict and are applied to the letter — every one of them has to be satisfied, and the ATO cannot waive any except the timing rule.

The conditions

1. You are 55 or older on the day the contribution is made. There is no upper age limit and no work test. The threshold was 65 when the measure began, dropped to 60 on 1 July 2022 and to 55 on 1 January 2023.
2. The contract of sale was exchanged on or after 1 July 2018, the day the measure started.
3. You or your spouse owned the home for 10years or more. The clock runs from the settlement date of the purchase to the settlement date of the sale — not from contract dates, and not from when you moved in.
4. The home is in Australia and is not a caravan, houseboat or other mobile home.
5. The sale attracts a full or partial CGT main residence exemption. A partial exemption is enough, so a home you rented out for part of the time still qualifies. Homes bought before 20 September 1985are pre-CGT assets and pass on the “would have been entitled” test.
6. Form NAT 75073 reaches your super fund before, or at the same time as, the money.
7. The contribution is made within 90 days of receiving the proceeds, which is normally settlement day. This is the only condition the ATO can extend, and only on application.
8. You have not made a downsizer contribution before, from this or any other home.

The two limits

Two separate caps apply and the smaller one wins. First, each eligible person is capped at A$300,000. Second, the total of all downsizer contributions from a sale cannot exceed the total capital proceeds of that sale. So:

maximum = min(A$300,000 × eligible people, total sale price)

The calculator also derives the same figure a second way — by allocating the sale proceeds to each eligible person in turn, giving each the lesser of the per-person cap and whatever proceeds are left. Both derivations agree for every input, which is the check that the per-person cap and the total-proceeds rule are being applied together rather than one masking the other.

Where a couple is limited by the sale price rather than the cap, the split between them is a free choice. On a A$500,000 sale, two eligible spouses can go A$250,000 each, or A$300,000 and A$200,000— anything that keeps each person at or below A$300,000 and the total at or below the sale price. The tool shows an even split and says so.

What it deliberately does not do

It does not project fund earnings, model tax on withdrawal, or estimate your Age Pension. That last one matters: the family home is exempt from the assets test, but super in your name is assessable once you reach Age Pension age, so a downsizer contribution can reduce your payment. It also counts towards the general transfer balance cap of A$2,100,000 when you start a retirement-phase pension. Both are worth checking with Services Australia or a licensed adviser before you commit.

The maximum combined contribution for common sale prices, assuming every other condition is met.

Source: ATO, Downsizer super contributions. Per-person cap A$300,000; contributions cannot exceed total capital proceeds.

• ATO — Downsizer super contributions (eligibility conditions and caps)
• ATO — Downsizer contribution into super form (NAT 75073)
• Moneysmart (ASIC) — Downsizer super contributions
• ATO — Contributions caps (key superannuation rates and thresholds)
• ATO — General transfer balance cap indexation on 1 July 2026
• Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 — s 292-102, downsizer contributions

Rules, caps and thresholds on this page were cross-checked against the ATO and Moneysmart sources on 2026-08-13. The page is reviewed each July, when super thresholds index, and whenever the measure changes. This is general information, not personal financial advice — talk to a licensed adviser or your super fund before contributing.