Making contributions to super

I am 64 (born 1950) and my wife is 59 (born 1955). We have our own home and we both recently retired from work permanently.

My superannuation is about $800,000 and my wife's superannuation about $100,000 and both accounts are still in the accumulation phase. Our other assets in bank account, shares, home contents and vehicle are around $50,000 in total

In order to be eligible for government pension in a year's time, I plan to make a non-concessional contribution of $400,000 to my wife's superannuation accumulation account since she is not reaching pensionable age in a few years yet.

Will I need to make this non-concessional contribution now, or it can wait until I reach pensionable age?

Assuming I make a non-concessional contribution of $400,000 to my wife's superannuation now, can we both start our account-based pensions or does my wife need to keep her superannuation in accumulation phase?

ANSWER:

Contributions can be made to your wife’s super until she is 65 – your age is not relevant to her contributions.  Be very, very careful about starting an account-based pension in your wife’s name as it will be assessed for Centrelink immediately you do this.  It is much better to keep it in accumulation mode.  Just make sure you take advice, you’ll pay heavily for getting it wrong.