You may be able to claim a tax deduction for any personal super contributions you may have made to your fund out on your next income tax return. But to do so, you will need to ensure that you have lodged a notice of intent with your superannuation fund prior to claiming and by a certain timeframe.

To claim a tax deduction for personal super contributions, you must send your superannuation fund your completed Notice of intent to claim a tax deduction for personal super contributions form before you withdraw your super benefit, transfer any part of your account to a retirement income account, split any of your super with your spouse or close your account.

You must give your superannuation fund your notice (or variation) by whichever of the following dates comes first:

• The day you lodge your income tax return for the income year in which the contribution was made
• The end of the income year following the income year in which the contribution was made

You need to sign a declaration that this has been provided to the fund by the provided date, as they may not know exactly when those dates would have occurred. They will then need to provide you with an acknowledgement.

A valid notice of intent cannot be revoked or withdrawn, but you can vary the notice to reduce your claim to an amount of your specification (including to zero!). This needs to be done by the dates set out before as well.

People eligible to claim a deduction for personal contributions include people who get their income from

• salary and wages
• a personal business (for example, people who are self-employed contractors, or freelancers)
• investments (including interest, dividends, rent and capital gains)
• government pensions or allowances
• super
• partnership or trust distributions
• a foreign source.

The personal super contributions that you claim as a deduction will count towards your concessional contributions cap. You need to be careful not to exceed this cap, as this could result in paying more tax and having the excess count towards your non-concessional contributions cap.

For further assistance with your personal super contributions, you should consult with a trusted advisor.