What the cap does to your tax
Updates as you type.
The cap
Extra assessable income
Your 10% offset on the untaxed element
This is the ATO tax rule, not the Centrelink one. Centrelink has a separate 10% deductible amount cap that affects the Age Pension income test. Different law, different agency, different answer. For that question use the Age Pension calculator.
Common questions
Is this the Centrelink defined benefit cap?
No, and this is the easiest thing to get wrong. There are two different rules with similar names. This page is about the ATO defined benefit income cap, a tax rule: it decides how much of your pension becomes assessable income and how much tax offset you keep. Centrelink has a separate 10% deductible amount cap that affects the Age Pension income test. Different law, different agency, different answer. For that question use the Age Pension calculator.
Where do I find my three components?
On your PAYG payment summary — superannuation income stream, which your fund sends after 30 June. It lists the tax-free component, the taxable component — taxed element, and the taxable component — untaxed element separately. If you receive more than one capped defined benefit income stream, add the same component across all of them: the cap applies to them together.
Why is my tax-free component being taxed?
Above the cap, partly — and it surprises people. Normally a tax-free component is not assessable at all. But the rule includes 50% of the excess of your tax-free component plus taxed element over the cap in your assessable income. That is the concession being clawed back above the cap. It is the rule working as designed, not an error.
Why will my fund not just tell me the offset?
Because it cannot. Your fund does not know whether you receive another capped defined benefit income stream from somewhere else, and the cap applies across all of them together. The ATO says as much: where there is an untaxed element, the fund “may not pre-populate your payment summary with your entitlement to the tax offset”. You work it out at tax time.
What counts as a capped defined benefit income stream?
A lifetime pension, whenever it started — typically from a government or corporate scheme such as PSS, CSS, a state scheme or military super. Also lifetime annuities, life expectancy pensions and market-linked pensions that existed before 1 July 2017. An ordinary account-based pension is not one. If you are unsure, ask your fund — they can tell you.
Is anything I enter saved or sent to iAdvice?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is transmitted, stored or emailed. We record only anonymous usage — that the calculator was used, and a broad outcome band — never the figures you type.