The general transfer balance cap (TBC) will increase to $2.1 million on 1 July 2026 after December inflation figures were high enough to trigger the mechanism for the upward shift.
The consumer price index rose to 3.8 per cent in the 12 months to December 2025, up from 3.4 per cent in the year to November 2025, which will cause an increase of $100,000 in the general TBC from its current level of $2 million.
The change will mean any super fund member who commences their first retirement-phase income stream in the 2027 financial year will start with a personal TBC of $2.1 million.
Colonial First State’s First Tech noted the change would not apply equally to superannuants who have started an income stream.
“Clients who already have a personal transfer balance cap that they have not fully utilised at any time in the past will see their cap increase on 1 July 2026 by less than the general cap increase of $100,000 due to proportional indexation,” First Tech stated in an update to advisers.
SMSF Alliance principal David Busoli said how the increase would be applied to those who already had a pension “depends on a convoluted calculation based on the percentage of previous transfer balance caps that have been utilised”.
“As the personal transfer balance cap for every existing pensioner will be unique, it will need to be calculated separately,” Busoli said.
“I expect that many will rely on the information that will become available on the MyGov website to learn their new cap.
“The only general comment that can be made is that any existing pensioner that has utilised all their transfer balance cap previously will not receive any uplift at all.”
First Tech pointed out while the calculation of the concessional contributions cap for 2026/27 was dependent on average weekly ordinary time earnings data for the December 2025 quarter, and would not be released until late February, the most recent available figures strongly indicated the cap will increase to $32,500 on 1 July.
Together, the increase of the general TBC and concessional contributions cap would increase the non-concessional contributions cap from $120,000 to $130,000 and the three-year bring-forward cap to $390,000.
The technical services provider also highlighted a change to the concessional contributions cap would also lift the superannuation guarantee (SG) maximum contributions base.
“Assuming the basic concessional contributions cap increases to $32,500 on 1 July 2026, the maximum contributions base – eligible earnings above which employers are not required to make SG contributions – will effectively increase from $250,000 per annum, or $62,500 per quarter, to $270,830 per annum,” it said.
“This increase would also coincide with the change from quarterly SG payment rules to payday super rules, with the maximum contributions base moving to applying per financial year.”
