End of Financial Year Tax Planning 2026: 10 Things to Do Before June 30

The end of the 2025-26 financial year lands on June 30, and everything you do (or don't do) between now and then directly affects how much tax you pay. Once July 1 rolls around, it's too late — you can't backdate deductions, super contributions, or capital gains strategies into the previous financial year.

Most Australians leave their tax planning to the last week of June, which is a mistake. Many of the most effective strategies — salary sacrifice arrangements, prepaying expenses, timing asset sales — need weeks or months of lead time. Starting now gives you the runway to execute properly rather than scrambling.

The 2025-26 financial year has some specific considerations worth noting. The Stage 3 tax cuts that took effect from 1 July 2024 are now fully embedded, meaning your marginal rates may be different from what you're used to. Super contribution caps have been adjusted. And if your income has fluctuated this year — perhaps due to a pay rise, bonus, or change in work arrangements — your tax position might be quite different from last year.

This guide walks through the key moves to consider before June 30. Not all of them will apply to you, but even implementing two or three could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The ATO allows deductions for expenses directly related to earning your income, but you need records. If you've been lax about keeping receipts this year, now is the time to go through bank statements, credit card records, and email confirmations to reconstruct what you've spent.

Common work-related deductions include: home office expenses (if you work from home, even partially), work-related travel, professional development and training, tools and equipment, union fees, professional memberships, and work-related clothing (uniforms, protective gear — not regular clothes even if you only wear them to work).

For the 2025-26 year, the revised fixed-rate method for home office expenses lets you claim 67 cents per hour worked from home. You need a record of actual hours worked — a timesheet, diary, or roster. If you work from home 3 days a week for 48 weeks, that's approximately 576 hours, or a deduction of $385.92. It's not huge, but it adds up alongside other deductions.

Important: The ATO has flagged work-from-home claims and rental property deductions as key audit focus areas for 2025-26. Don't claim anything you can't substantiate with records. The days of estimating round numbers are over — data matching and AI-driven audit selection mean the ATO catches more than you'd think.

If you have any large work-related purchases to make (a new laptop, professional tools, work equipment), consider buying before June 30 rather than after. Items costing $300 or less can be claimed as an immediate deduction. Items over $300 are depreciated over their effective life, but the depreciation deduction starts in the year of purchase.

Salary sacrificing or making personal concessional contributions to super is one of the most effective tax reduction strategies available to everyday Australians. Concessional contributions are taxed at 15% inside super, compared to your marginal tax rate which could be 30%, 37%, or 45% (plus Medicare levy). The gap between those rates is your tax saving.

For the 2025-26 financial year, the concessional contributions cap is $30,000 per person. This includes your employer's compulsory super guarantee contributions (currently 11.5% of ordinary time earnings), any salary sacrifice, and any personal deductible contributions. If your employer is contributing $12,000 in SG, you have $18,000 of cap space to use.

If you haven't used your full cap in previous years, you may be eligible for the carry-forward rule — unused cap amounts from up to five prior financial years can be carried forward, provided your total super balance was below $500,000 on June 30 of the relevant year. This can allow contributions well above $30,000 in a single year.

The mechanics: you can either arrange salary sacrifice through your employer (which needs payroll processing time, so start now), or make a personal contribution directly to your super fund and claim a tax deduction by submitting a Notice of Intent to your fund before you lodge your tax return.

Warning: Exceeding the concessional cap means the excess is taxed at your marginal rate plus an interest charge. Get the numbers right — check your year-to-date contributions via myGov or your super fund's online portal before committing to additional amounts.

If you have deductible expenses that span the next financial year, prepaying them before June 30 brings the deduction into the current year. The ATO allows prepayment deductions for expenses that cover a period of 12 months or less, provided the period ends before the corresponding income year.

Common prepayable expenses include: income protection insurance premiums, professional membership and subscription fees, interest on investment loans (up to 12 months in advance), and landlord insurance for investment properties. If you hold shares or managed funds, you can also prepay the management fees on investment platforms.

For property investors, prepaying interest is a significant strategy. If you have an investment loan with a variable rate, some lenders allow you to prepay up to 12 months of interest. On a $400,000 investment loan at 6.0%, that's approximately $24,000 in interest brought forward as a deduction. At a marginal rate of 37%, that's a tax saving of roughly $8,880 — though you're bringing forward a real expense, not creating a new one.

Private health insurance is another consideration. While it's not directly deductible, having an appropriate level of hospital cover avoids the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS) if your income exceeds $93,000 for singles or $186,000 for families. The MLS ranges from 1.0% to 1.5% of taxable income — on a $120,000 income, that's $1,200-$1,800 per year. If you don't have hospital cover and your income is near these thresholds, taking out a policy before June 30 avoids the surcharge for the remainder of the year.

If you've sold or are planning to sell assets — shares, crypto, investment property, or other CGT assets — the timing of the sale relative to June 30 can have a major impact on your tax bill. Any capital gain realised before June 30 falls into the 2025-26 financial year. Gains realised after July 1 go into 2026-27.

If you've already realised a significant capital gain this year, consider whether you have any poorly performing investments that could be sold before June 30 to crystallise a capital loss. Capital losses offset capital gains dollar-for-dollar, and any unused losses carry forward indefinitely. This strategy — known as tax-loss harvesting — is entirely legitimate provided you don't buy back a substantially identical asset within a short period (the ATO watches for "wash sales").

Remember the 50% CGT discount: if you've held a CGT asset for 12 months or more, only half the capital gain is included in your taxable income. If you've held an asset for 11 months and are considering selling, it may be worth waiting until the 12-month mark to halve the taxable gain. The difference can be thousands of dollars in tax on a significant gain.

For those expecting a lower-income year in 2026-27 (perhaps due to parental leave, a career break, or retirement), deferring a sale to after July 1 means the gain is taxed at your lower marginal rate. Conversely, if you expect higher income next year, it may be better to realise the gain this year.

Strategy note: Capital gains planning interacts with super contributions, deductions, and other tax strategies. Consider the full picture rather than optimising each element in isolation. A tax professional can model different scenarios for a few hundred dollars — often saving many times their fee.

If your total income for 2025-26 is $43,445 or less, making a non-concessional (after-tax) contribution to your super of up to $1,000 triggers a government co-contribution of up to $500. It's free money. The co-contribution phases out between $43,445 and $58,445 of income. If you're anywhere in that range and have spare cash, even a $500 after-tax contribution gets you a partial co-contribution.

For higher-income earners with a lower-income spouse, the spouse contribution tax offset provides a tax offset of up to $540 when you contribute to your spouse's super. The receiving spouse must earn $40,000 or less for the full offset, phasing out at $57,000. The contribution must be at least $3,000 to claim the maximum offset.

These are small numbers individually, but they're essentially risk-free returns. A $1,000 non-concessional contribution earning a $500 co-contribution is an immediate 50% return before any investment earnings. There's no other investment that offers that.

To qualify for the co-contribution, you must have earned at least 10% of your income from employment, business, or a combination, and you must lodge a tax return for the year. The contribution must be received by your super fund by June 30 — not just initiated, but actually received. Allow processing time.

Here's a practical checklist to work through over the next three months. This week: Check your year-to-date super contributions via myGov or your fund. Calculate your remaining concessional cap space. Review your year-to-date income to estimate your likely marginal tax rate.

By mid-April: If salary sacrificing, arrange additional contributions with your employer's payroll team — they need time to process. Order any work-related equipment or tools you need before June 30. Gather receipts and records for all work-related expenses throughout the year.

By mid-May: Make any personal deductible super contributions (allow 2-3 weeks for processing). Prepay any eligible deductible expenses for the next 12 months. If tax-loss harvesting, execute trades to settle before June 30 (share trades take T+2 to settle). Review your private health insurance if income is above the MLS thresholds.

By June 20: Confirm all super contributions have been received by your fund (not just initiated). Make any non-concessional super contributions for co-contribution eligibility. Finalise any asset sales or deferrals. Complete any charitable donations you intended to make (tax-deductible if the recipient has DGR status).

After July 1: Submit your Notice of Intent to claim a deduction for any personal super contributions. Wait for employer payment summaries and fund statements to arrive. Consider whether a tax agent is worth the fee for your situation — their fee is tax-deductible in the following year.