Sixty five per cent, on the taxable component. A $10,000 balance pays out about $3,500. The rate was set by federal law in 2017 specifically for super contributed while on a 417 or 462 visa, and it cannot be reduced, deducted against or planned around.
What does the 65% actually apply to?
The taxable component, which for a working holiday maker is essentially all of it. Your account is employer contributions paid under the superannuation guarantee, currently 12% of your wages, plus what those contributions earned while invested. Both are taxable component.
A non-taxable component, from personal after tax contributions, escapes the 65%. Almost no working holiday maker has one.
Why is the rate so much higher than for other visas?
A deliberate trade in the 2017 working holiday maker reform package. That legislation set the income tax rate at 15% from the first dollar, lower than the foreign resident rates that would otherwise apply, and raised the DASP rate from 35% to 65% on super contributed while on those visas.
The rate does not vary with how long you were here, how much you accumulated, which fund it sat in or what you earned. The fund applies it before release, so nothing arrives that you have to set aside.
What does this look like on real balances?
Super accrues at 12% of your wages, so the balance tracks what you earned. The figures below assume the whole account is taxable component.
- $20,000 of wages: roughly $2,400 of super, roughly $840 after the withholding
- $40,000 of wages: roughly $4,800 of super, roughly $1,680 after
- $60,000 of wages: roughly $7,200 of super, roughly $2,520 after
- A $10,000 balance: about $3,500 after
Fund fees and investment returns move these figures a little in both directions.
Is it still worth claiming at that rate?
Yes. The alternative is not keeping the money, it is losing access to it. Unclaimed accounts are eventually reported as lost and transferred to the ATO, where the balance sits without investment earnings and is still subject to the same 65% if it is ever claimed later.
The choice is not 65% now against 0% later. It is 35% in your account now against a balance you come back for from another country years later, with a passport that may have been renewed in between. Most people who never claim did not decide not to. They just left.
Can anyone get it out at a lower rate?
No. The rate is statutory, applied by the fund at the point of release, and identical whoever lodges the claim. There is no deduction, offset, structure or agent channel that changes it.
Offers on social media and messaging apps to handle a super claim at a better rate are either a misunderstanding of the law or a fraud collecting a passport, a TFN and enough identity to open accounts. A claim needs your passport, your TFN and your bank details in one place, which is what makes it an attractive target. The TFN fraud patterns are worth reading before sharing anything with anyone.
What decides your figure rather than the rate?
The rate is fixed by statute. What varies is how much of your balance it reaches and how much survives the wait.
- Whether any of the balance is non-taxable component, which is rare but is the only thing the 65% does not reach.
- Whether some of your contributions were made on a different visa. Super contributed while on a student or skilled visa is taxed at 35%, not 65%, and a mixed history is assessed accordingly.
- How many funds you have, since fees erode each small balance separately.
- Whether your super has already been transferred to the ATO as unclaimed, which changes the route but not the rate.
- Whether you are also owed a tax refund for your final year, which is separate money, taxed separately, and frequently larger.
The eligibility rules, timing and documents are set out where you claim your superannuation after leaving Australia, and you can estimate your tax refund for the income side separately.