Save your deposit inside super?
The First Home Super Saver scheme lets first-home buyers salary-sacrifice their deposit for the tax break — taxed at 15% going in and released with a 30% offset. See how much further ahead it leaves you than an ordinary savings account.
Max $15,000/yr, $50,000 in total.
Sacrificing $15,000 a year for 3 years ($45,000 in all), at a 30% marginal rate
saving via FHSS gets you $7,987 more toward your deposit than an ordinary account
$41,142
$33,155
Both put the same pre-tax pay aside. FHSS is taxed at 15% going in (not your marginal rate), grows at the ATO deemed rate, and the release is taxed at your marginal rate less the 30% offset.
The gain comes from paying 15% contributions tax instead of your marginal rate, and the 30% offset on release. Associated earnings use the ATO deemed rate (indicative). Open the deep dive for the full breakdown. A guide, not financial advice.
Most people saving a first-home deposit do it the obvious way: the money is taxed at their marginal rate before it reaches their account, and the interest is taxed again each year. The First Home Super Saver scheme offers another route for part of that saving — money sacrificed into super is taxed at 15% going in rather than at your marginal rate, and a 30% offset cuts the tax again when you release it to buy.
This calculator answers the practical version of the question: for your income and the amount you can put aside, how much more actually lands in your deposit? Your fund's returns don't change that answer — the ATO deems the earnings itself — so it turns on your marginal rate, the amount, and the number of years.
How this is calculated
- 1
Your contribution is capped to the scheme limits
Whatever you enter, the model contributes at most $15,000 in a year and stops once your cumulative pre-tax contributions reach the $50,000 lifetime limit. Extra years beyond that point add nothing.
- 2
15% comes out on the way in
Each year's contribution loses the 15% concessional contributions tax before it joins your FHSS balance. That balance then grows at the ATO deemed rate — the shortfall interest charge rate — rather than at your fund's actual return.
- 3
The savings account starts from the same pre-tax pay
The ordinary-account side takes identical pre-tax dollars, removes your marginal rate first, then earns the same rate with the interest taxed at your marginal rate every year.
- 4
Release tax is your marginal rate less the 30% offset
At the end the whole FHSS balance — contributions after tax plus the deemed earnings — is taxed at your marginal rate minus the 30% offset, floored at zero. At or below a 30% marginal rate that leaves no release tax at all.
- 5
The two net results are compared
What reaches your deposit after release tax is set against the ordinary-account balance, and the difference is the headline figure.
What it assumes
- Your marginal rate comes from your income against the current resident tax brackets and is held flat for every year modelled — no pay rises, no bracket changes.
- Release tax uses the marginal income tax rate less the offset. The Medicare levy is not added, so the tax you actually pay on release may be a little higher.
- Associated earnings use the ATO deemed rate, which the ATO updates quarterly — treat the earnings figure as indicative.
- The ordinary savings account is assumed to earn the same rate as the deemed rate — a like-for-like tax comparison, not a forecast of what a bank will pay.
- Eligibility is not checked, and the model covers one person's contributions against one person's tax rate.
- FHSS contributions are concessional, so they count towards your annual concessional cap ($32,500 in 2026-27) alongside employer super. The tool doesn't test that, and nothing here is inflation-adjusted.
Common questions
Does my fund's investment performance change how much I get out?
No. The earnings released alongside your contributions are deemed by the ATO at a set rate rather than tracking what your fund actually returned, so a strong or weak market year doesn't change the releasable amount. That is why this calculator never asks you for a return assumption.
Is there an income where this stops being worth it?
Yes. The gain comes from paying 15% going in instead of your marginal rate, so it shrinks as those two rates converge. Below the tax-free threshold you would be paying 15% on money that wasn't going to be taxed at all, and the tool will show FHSS finishing behind an ordinary account.
We're buying together — how do we model that?
The calculator works on one person's contributions and one person's marginal rate. If you are buying with someone else, run it once for each of you and add the two net figures, since you each have your own caps and your own tax position.
Why is the deposit figure lower than the balance in the table?
The year-by-year table shows the FHSS balance while it is still inside super. The release tax — your marginal rate less the 30% offset — is only charged when you withdraw, which is why the headline net sits below the final row.
Sources: ATO — First home super saver scheme · All data sources
See also: First-home deposit & LMI · Salary sacrifice · Stamp duty · Mortgage repayments
General information only, not financial advice. Figures are estimates based on the inputs and assumptions above and don't account for your personal circumstances. Confirm anything important with the relevant authority or a licensed adviser.