Getting first home super savings back out

01

The five legs

1. Request a determination

   Before ownership transfers to you

   The form is in ATO online services through myGov, under Super, then Manage, then First home saver. Most contributions are pre-filled from what your fund has reported, but you must check them; salary sacrifice from 2017–18 is not pre-filled, and the year of a contribution is the date your fund received it, not the date it was paid.

   The ATO then tells you your maximum release amount. You can request a determination more than once, and an error can be fixed by amending it or requesting a new one, as long as no property has transferred to you and you haven’t yet asked for a release.

2. Request the release

   Before signing, or within 90 days after

   You choose the determination, the amount (up to the maximum), the fund or funds, and the bank account. You get one release request, so the ATO says to include the total you want. It can be cancelled or changed only until the ATO starts processing the payment.

   For determinations made on or after 15 September 2024, a request made after signing a contract should be made within 90 days of signing; a valid request outside that time attracts FHSS tax. The money usually takes 15 to 20 business days to arrive.

3. Sign a contract, or put the money back

   Window: 90 days before the request to 12 months after

   For determinations made on or after 15 September 2024, you must sign a contract to buy or build a home, or recontribute the released amount, in a window that opens 90 days before your release request and closes 12 months after it. The ATO may extend that by up to another 12 months, to 24 months in all, and generally grants it without an application.

   You must then tell the ATO: within 90 days of signing a contract, or within 12 months of the release request if you recontributed instead.

4. Receive the money

   Usually 15 to 20 business days

   The ATO sends your fund a release authority, then withholds tax before paying you: at your expected marginal rate (including Medicare levy) minus the 30% offset, or 17% if it cannot estimate your rate. It also offsets any debt you owe the ATO or another Commonwealth agency. A debt can reduce the release, even to nil, and makes it take longer.

5. Lodge the tax return

   The year you requested the release

   The assessable amount and the tax withheld go in the return for the financial year you requested the release, even if the money arrived in the next one. When you lodge, the ATO works out your actual marginal rate, recalculates the tax on the release, and applies the tax withheld and the 30% offset. A payment summary arrives after the financial year ends.

02

Example dates

03

What the home must be

The ATO says that when you use the scheme you must genuinely intend to live in the property as soon as practicable, and live in it for at least 6 of the first 12 months from when that is practicable.

The scheme can’t be used for premises that can’t be lived in, a houseboat, a motor home or vacant land. Building a home on vacant land is allowed, provided the land has not transferred to you before you request the determination, and the building contract is signed within 12 months (or another period allowed) of the release request.

Off-the-plan purchases have their own steps: the ATO’s example has the buyer request the determination and the release, and notify the ATO of the contract, within 90 days of the contract date.

04

If no home is bought

If there is still no contract by the end of the period, one of two things must have happened.

• The money went back into super. At least the assessable amount, less the tax withheld, recontributed as a non-concessional contribution with no deduction claimed. The scheme can’t be used again afterwards.
• The money was kept. Then FHSS tax applies: a flat 20% of the assessable released amount, on top of the income tax already due on it.

Notice matters too: not telling the ATO what you did with the money also brings FHSS tax. For anyone unsure whether the scheme is right for them, the ATO suggests help from a financial adviser.