What changed for SMSFs on 1 July 2026: six numbers to update in your records

Tax years usually change one thing at a time. This one changed four at once, and two of them carry brand-new compliance machinery. If you keep your own fund records, here are the six numbers that moved on 1 July, in descending order of how expensive it is to get them wrong.

1. The concessional cap: $32,500

Indexation lifted the concessional contributions cap from $30,000 to $32,500. If your salary-sacrifice arrangement was set to fill the old cap, it now undershoots by $2,500 a year. If you claim personal deductible contributions, the notice-of-intent figure has more room. The five-year carry-forward rules still apply, still gated on a total super balance under $500,000 at the prior 30 June.

2. The non-concessional cap: $130,000

The non-concessional cap is always four times the concessional cap, so it moved to $130,000. The bring-forward multiples moved with it: up to $390,000 over three years if your balance allows it. Which balances allow it changed too, and that is number three.

3. The transfer balance cap: $2.1 million

The general transfer balance cap indexed from $2.0 million to $2.1 million. This number quietly controls more than pensions. The bring-forward tiers hang off it: a total super balance under $1.84 million at 30 June 2026 keeps the full three-year bring-forward, under $1.97 million keeps two years, and at $2.1 million or above the non-concessional cap for the year is nil. Trustees who checked their tier last year against the old thresholds are holding stale answers.

4. Division 296: $3 million

The new tax on the share of earnings attributable to balances above $3 million commenced. It taxes realised earnings, tested against your balance at 30 June 2027 for this first year. We wrote a separate piece on the three numbers that matter and on the cost-base-reset election, which, contrary to a widely repeated claim, is still open: it lodges with the fund's 2026-27 return. The short version for record-keeping is that member balances and realised earnings now need watching through the year, not reconstructing after it.

5. Payday Super: seven business days

From 1 July, Super Guarantee contributions must reach the fund within seven business days of payday, not quarterly. For most SMSF trustees this matters in one of two directions. If you run a business with employees, your payroll timing now has a hard super deadline attached, and the penalties for missing it are not tax-deductible. If your own SMSF receives your SG, contributions will start arriving in small frequent amounts rather than four lumps, which changes what your contribution records look like across the year.

6. The pension drawdown floor: unchanged, but recompute it

Minimum pension percentages did not change, but every 1 July the minimum recalculates from the member's balance on that day. A balance that grew last year means a higher dollar minimum this year. Funds that pay the same monthly amount by habit and check the total in May are the ones that discover a shortfall in June, when the exempt pension income consequences are already locked in.

The pattern

Every one of these is a number that was correct in your records on 30 June and wrong on 1 July. None of them announces itself. The ATO publishes the new values, the industry writes explainers for a fortnight, and then the year runs on whatever figures a trustee happens to be carrying.

We build SMSF Core around exactly this problem: the caps tracker carries the FY 2026-27 figures, the Division 296 tracker watches balances against the new thresholds, and the pension calculator recomputes minimums from the 1 July balance. Every figure cites the ATO source it came from. There is a sample fund at app.smsfcore.com/demo, and the Division 296 estimator at smsfcore.com/div296 is free with no signup.

SMSF Core is an information tool, not a licensed financial service. Talk to a licensed adviser or your accountant about your own position.