Pay calculator / salary sacrifice calculator
Salary sacrifice calculator (2026-27).
What sacrificing to super costs you in take-home pay, what actually lands in the fund after the 15% contributions tax, and whether the gap is worth it at your income. Including the cap you can't cross and the surcharge at $250,000 most calculators leave out.
You end up ahead by
$1,700
Sacrificing $10,000 costs you $6,800 of take-home pay and puts $8,500 into super after the 15% contributions tax. The difference is what the arrangement is actually worth.
Income tax saved
$3,200
Contributions tax
$1,500
Marginal rate
30%
| Per year | No sacrifice | Sacrificing $10,000 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taxable income | $120,000 | $110,000 | -$10,000 |
| Income tax | $26,520 | $23,520 | -$3,000 |
| Medicare levy | $2,400 | $2,200 | -$200 |
| Take-home pay | $91,080 | $84,280 | -$6,800 |
| Total into super | $14,400 | $24,400 | +$10,000 |
Why this comes out ahead
Your marginal rate is 30% and super contributions are taxed at 15%, so every dollar you move across saves the difference. The catch is access: it is preserved until you reach preservation age and meet a condition of release. This is a forced-saving decision as much as a tax one.
Estimates for an Australian resident for 2026-27, using the 12% super guarantee and the $32,500 concessional cap. Contributions tax is applied at 15% (30% inside Division 293) and no investment return is assumed - this compares the two positions on day one, not over time. Sacrificed amounts are preserved in super until a condition of release is met. Salary sacrifice must be agreed with your employer before the income is earned. General information only, not financial or tax advice.
What you end up ahead by, 2026-27
| Salary | Sacrifice $5,000 | Sacrifice $10,000 | Sacrifice $15,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $80,000 | +$850 | +$1,700 | +$2,575 |
| $100,000 | +$850 | +$1,700 | +$2,550 |
| $120,000 | +$850 | +$1,700 | +$2,550 |
| $150,000 | +$1,200 | +$2,400 | +$3,600 |
| $200,000 | +$1,600 | +$3,200 | +$4,400 |
Money into super after the 15% contributions tax, less the take-home pay given up. The concessional cap is $32,500 including employer contributions, so the larger amounts here will breach it on the higher salaries - the calculator above flags it against your own numbers.
Common questions
→What is salary sacrifice?
An agreement with your employer to take part of your salary as super instead of cash. The sacrificed amount is not counted as your income, so it is not taxed at your marginal rate - it goes into super and is taxed there at 15% instead. It has to be agreed before the income is earned; you cannot do it retrospectively.
→How much tax does salary sacrifice actually save?
The difference between your marginal rate and the 15% contributions tax, on every dollar you move. On a 30% marginal rate that is 15c in the dollar; on 45% it is 30c. On the 15% bracket it saves nothing at all, and above $250,000 of income Division 293 doubles the contributions tax to 30%, which halves the benefit. The honest number is the gap, not the gross tax saved.
→What is the concessional cap?
$32,500 for 2026-27, and it includes your employer's super guarantee as well as anything you sacrifice. Go over it and the excess is added back to your taxable income and taxed at your marginal rate, which undoes the point of the exercise. If your total super balance is under $500,000 you may be able to carry forward unused cap from the previous five years.
→Does salary sacrifice reduce my HECS repayment?
No. Repayment income adds reportable super contributions straight back, so your income tax falls and the study loan repayment does not move. The same applies to the Medicare levy surcharge, which is also assessed on income including reportable super.
→Does it reduce my employer's super guarantee?
Not since 2020. Employers must calculate the super guarantee on your pre-sacrifice ordinary time earnings, so sacrificing cannot be used to shrink what they owe you. Before that change it could be, which is why older advice on this is worth ignoring.
→What is the catch?
Access. Money in super is preserved until you reach preservation age and meet a condition of release, so this is a decision about when you can spend it as much as about tax. It also reduces the cash you have for a mortgage, an offset account or an emergency fund. The tax argument is usually sound; whether it is right for you is a different question.
LINK Wealth
Worth doing is not the same as worth doing this way.
How much to contribute, when, and what it costs you in access - a LINK Wealth adviser answers the part a calculator can't.
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