Use your super to buy a house

What you can withdraw

You can withdraw up to $15,000 of your voluntary contributions from any one financial year, up to a total of $50,000 across multiple years, plus associated earnings,³ to use as a deposit, this includes:

• 100% of your eligible after-tax contributions

• 85% of your voluntary before-tax contributions

• The associated investment returns³ on your contributions, minus any applicable taxes.

If two of you are buying a house together, you can withdraw up to $50k each – so that’s $100k combined.‍

Employer Super Guarantee (SG) contributions are not eligible to withdraw under the FHSS scheme but are included in the before tax contributions cap of $30,000 each year.

For more information on all the eligibility and other requirements, go to ato.gov.au/FHSS

The detail

The two types of voluntary contributions

1. Before tax salary sacrifice contributions or contributions you may be able to claim a tax deduction on.

2. After tax contributions that you deposit into super from your savings or pay.

Making contributions is easy at BUSSQ - Learn more

Potential tax benefits

Before tax super contributions up to the annual cap amount of $30,000, are taxed at 15% (unless you earn $250k+ per year). This means the money you save in super for a deposit could be taxed less than it would be outside super.

The below tax rates for different income brackets are for the 2024/25 financial year and exclude the Medicare Levy.

Before tax contributions – what the tax savings can look like

For example,⁵ if you earn between $60k and $135k per year and save $15k in a year, here’s how the tax and total savings will compare outside vs inside super:

That’s a difference of $2,250 in tax. Or put another way, an extra $2,250 in savings for your house!

ATO process – how to request your FHSS determination and release of funds

The ATO assess your determination request and release the funds from super for you – and you can either do this before or after you sign a contract. Here are the important facts to know about both options and go to ato.gov.au/FHSS for more information:

Before you sign a contract:

If you choose to release funds before you sign a contract, you must:

• Sign a contract within 12 months of your funds release date.

• Notify the ATO within 28 days of the date you sign a contract.

If you fail to sign a contract within the 12 months, you can either:

• Request a 12-month extension from the ATO.

• Put an equal amount back into your super as an after tax contribution.

• Keep the funds and pay 20% tax on the released amount.

You also need to notify the ATO which of the above options you have chosen.

After you sign a contract:

If you choose to request a determination after you’ve signed a contract, you must:

• Request the ATO FHSS determination within 90 days of entering into a contract.

• Get the determination from the ATO before your property settles.

Other important facts

There are a few things you need to know before you get started.

• You can’t have previously owned a property in Australia (some exceptions apply if your experiencing financial hardship⁶).

• The amount you release from your super under the FHSS scheme must be used to buy or construct a residential property in Australia.

• You can’t use this money to buy a houseboat, motor home, vacant land or any other form of property where you can’t have a house.

• If you buy vacant land, you need to sign a contract to construct your house before you can access your deposit.

• Some types of contributions aren’t eligible to withdraw, including employer SG contributions, the government co-contribution, or spouse contributions.

For more information go to ato.gov.au/FHSS