Legal Tax Minimisation Strategies for Australians Approaching Retirement

The legitimate approaches worth understanding in your final working years — and why the right ones depend entirely on your circumstances

By Ravi Moolchandani, Principal Financial Adviser / Director, Radiance Wealth

Reading time: ~11 minutes  │  Updated September 2026  │  Melbourne, Australia

Important note: This article describes general strategies only. It is not personal advice, and it does not recommend any course of action for your situation. Tax outcomes depend heavily on your individual circumstances, and the rules, caps and thresholds referred to (current as at September 2026) are subject to change. Please seek personal advice before acting, and note that tax minimisation must always stay within the law — this article is about legitimate planning, not avoidance.

There is a meaningful difference between tax avoidance and tax minimisation, and it is worth stating clearly at the outset. Tax avoidance — arranging your affairs artificially to sidestep tax you genuinely owe — is unlawful and rightly penalised. Legitimate tax minimisation is something else entirely: using the concessions, structures and timing that Parliament has deliberately built into the tax system, exactly as they were intended to be used. Every strategy in this article falls firmly in the second category.

The years approaching retirement are, in my experience, when thoughtful tax planning matters most. Your income is often at its peak, you have a clearer view of your retirement timeline, and the decisions you make now compound over the decades your savings need to last. A dollar of tax legitimately saved in your late 50s and directed into a well-structured retirement plan can be worth a great deal more than the dollar itself by the time you need it.

But — and this is the theme I will return to throughout — there is no universal set of tax strategies that suits everyone. The right approach depends on your income, your existing super balance, your other assets, your household structure and your goals. What follows is an explanation of the legitimate levers that exist, not a prescription. The purpose is to help you understand what is possible, so you can have a better-informed conversation about what is right for you.

For the structured, personal version of this — modelling these strategies against your actual position — see our tax minimisation service. And for the wider retirement planning context, our Pre-Retiree’s Guide for Australians Aged 50–64 sets out how tax fits into the bigger picture.

Superannuation — The Most Powerful Legitimate Lever

For most Australians approaching retirement, superannuation is the single most tax-effective structure available. Contributions and earnings inside super are generally taxed at 15% — well below most people’s marginal tax rate — and once you move into the retirement phase, earnings can become tax-free within limits. Understanding how to use super’s concessions well is the foundation of pre-retirement tax planning.

Concessional (before-tax) contributions

Concessional contributions are made from before-tax income and are taxed at 15% inside your fund. They include your employer’s Superannuation Guarantee payments, any salary sacrifice you arrange, and personal contributions you claim as a tax deduction. For the 2026-27 financial year, the concessional contributions cap is $32,500 across all these sources combined. For someone on a higher marginal rate, directing income into super at 15% rather than receiving it as salary taxed at a higher rate is one of the clearest legitimate tax efficiencies available — though the benefit and the appropriate amount depend on your income and how close you are to the cap.

Carry-forward contributions — an often-missed opportunity

One of the most underused concessions is the carry-forward (or “catch-up”) rule. If you have not used your full concessional cap in recent years, you may be able to carry forward the unused portion for up to five years and make a larger concessional contribution in a single year — provided your total super balance was under $500,000 at the previous 30 June. This can be genuinely valuable for people with variable income, those returning from a career break, or anyone who has a higher-income or higher-tax year and wants to offset it. Because the eligibility depends on your balance and your contribution history, it is a clear example of where general awareness is not enough — the numbers need to be checked for your specific position.

Non-concessional contributions and the bring-forward rule

Non-concessional (after-tax) contributions do not attract the 15% contributions tax because they are made from money already taxed — but they shift assets into the low-tax super environment. For 2026-27 the annual non-concessional cap is $130,000, and eligible individuals under 75 may be able to “bring forward” up to three years’ worth — up to $390,000 — in a single year. These contributions are often relevant when someone receives a lump sum, from downsizing, an inheritance or the sale of an asset, and wants to move it into super tax-effectively. Eligibility depends on your total super balance, so this is another area where the general rule needs to be tested against your figures.

Timing — When Income and Gains Are Realised Matters

Some of the most effective legitimate tax planning is not about what you do, but when. As you approach retirement, your marginal tax rate is likely to fall once you stop working. That change in your tax position from one year to the next creates genuine planning opportunities.

Capital gains and the timing of asset sales

If you are planning to sell an asset that will realise a capital gain — an investment property, a share parcel, a business asset — the financial year in which you sell can materially affect the tax you pay, because the gain is added to your income for that year. Realising a large gain in a year when you are still earning a full salary produces a very different outcome to realising it in a year when your income has dropped after stopping work. This is not about avoiding the tax; it is about not paying more than necessary through poor timing. Note that the treatment of capital gains is an area the government has flagged for change, so current rules should always be confirmed before acting.

Deductions and deductible contributions in high-income years

Bringing forward deductible expenses, or making a personal deductible super contribution, in a year of unusually high income is a straightforward way to smooth your tax across years. Prepaying certain expenses or timing a deductible contribution to land in your highest-income year — rather than a lower one — is legitimate and commonly used. As always, whether it makes sense depends on your income pattern and your cap position.

Structure — How You Hold Assets Affects How They Are Taxed

Beyond super, the structures through which you hold investments influence your tax position. This is a more advanced area, and one where general information is least sufficient — the appropriateness of any structure depends closely on your circumstances, and some structures carry cost and complexity that only make sense above certain thresholds.

Holding assets in the lower-income partner’s name

For couples, which partner holds an income-producing investment affects how the income is taxed, because it is added to that person’s marginal rate. Where one partner has a materially lower income — common when one has retired before the other — holding investments in their name can reduce the household’s overall tax. This must be a genuine arrangement reflecting real ownership, not an artificial one, and it interacts with other considerations such as future Age Pension assessment.

Spouse contributions and contribution splitting

The tax system contains specific concessions designed to support couples in balancing their super. A spouse contribution may attract a tax offset where the receiving spouse’s income and total super balance are within the relevant thresholds, and contribution splitting allows some concessional contributions to be directed to a partner’s account. Beyond the immediate offset, evening out super balances between partners can have longer-term tax benefits — a point that connects directly to the retirement and estate planning picture.

A note on trusts and SMSFs

Family trusts and self-managed super funds are sometimes presented as tax-minimisation tools. They can be appropriate in the right circumstances, but they carry real cost, administrative obligations and complexity, and recent and proposed changes — including measures affecting discretionary trusts flagged in the 2026 Federal Budget — mean their tax treatment is not static. They are never a decision to make on the basis of tax alone. If you are considering either, it is genuinely a case for personal advice; our strategic financial advice team can help assess whether a structure fits your situation or simply adds cost.

The Main Legitimate Levers at a Glance

A general summary of the approaches discussed. None of these is universally right — each depends on your circumstances, and several interact with one another.

What to Be Wary Of

Because tax is emotive, it attracts poor advice and outright schemes. A few principles I share with clients:

1. If a strategy’s main purpose is tax, be cautious. Sound planning uses tax concessions in service of a genuine financial goal. A “strategy” whose only point is to reduce tax, with no real underlying purpose, is often the definition of avoidance — and can attract ATO scrutiny and penalties.
2. Beware anything promising to “unlock” your super early. Illegal early release schemes are a persistent problem. Accessing super outside the legal conditions of release is unlawful and carries serious penalties.
3. Don’t let the tax tail wag the investment dog. Making a poor investment because it carries a tax benefit is a common and expensive mistake. The investment has to stand on its own merits first.
4. Remember the rules change. Contribution caps, the transfer balance cap, capital gains treatment and trust taxation have all changed in recent years, with more flagged. A strategy built to depend on today’s exact settings is fragile.

Good tax planning is not about clever tricks. It is about using the concessions the system deliberately provides, in service of a real goal, and reviewing them as the rules move. The clients who do best treat tax as one input into a plan — never the whole plan.

— Ravi Moolchandani, Radiance Wealth

Legitimate, Personal, and Reviewed Over Time

The strategies in this article are all legitimate, all built into the tax system by design, and all capable of making a real difference to how much of your money reaches your retirement. But every one of them comes with the same caveat: whether it is right for you depends on your circumstances, and those circumstances — like the rules themselves — change over time. That is why tax planning in the years before retirement is not a one-off exercise but an ongoing conversation.

At Radiance Wealth, we help Melbourne pre-retirees use these levers appropriately — modelling them against your actual position, keeping them within the law, and revisiting them as your situation and the rules evolve. A good starting point is our tax minimisation service, or our Pre-Retiree’s Guide for Australians Aged 50–64 for the broader plan.

Book a tax planning conversation with Radiance Wealth.

Call (03) 9590 6341   |   Visit radiancewealth.com.au/contact-us   |   Suite 2.04/202 Jells Rd, Wheelers Hill VIC 3150

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is general advice only. It has been prepared without taking into account any of your individual objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on this advice, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs.

Radiance Wealth is a Corporate Authorised Representative of RI Advice Group Pty Ltd ABN 23 001 774 125 AFSL 238429, an Australian Financial Services Licensee.

All figures, rates and thresholds referenced in this article are subject to change. Readers should verify current rates with the Australian Taxation Office, Services Australia, and ASIC Moneysmart before making financial decisions.