Focus on super facts, not myths: ASFA
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has called on the industry and policy makers to step back and consider the facts when debating the super system's key issues — not the myths.
High income earners did not receive a larger slice of government support for retirement income, it said.
Government assistance for retirement was broadly comparable across personal income brackets, and taking into account age pension, tax concessions and rebates, the present value of government assistance was approximately $300,000 over a person's lifetime, according to the industry association.
"A lower income person will receive this mostly in the form of the age pension, concessionally-taxed contributions and the low-income superannuation guarantee, while a person in the top income tax bracket will receive it as tax concessions for super," ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said.
ASFA said lower concessional contributions had decreased government assistance for high income earners.
Vamos said stakeholders should not lose sight of the system's aim — to deliver retirement-adequate income to all Australians.
ASFA said the $32 billion bandied about as the figure representing super tax concessions did not take into account the $7 billion saved annually in age pension expenditures and the leakage of savings into other tax-advantaged areas such as negative gearing.
A true estimate of the aggregate tax concession for super on an ongoing basis would be around $16 billion, ASFA said — half the figure in the Tax Expenditure Statement.
Vamos dismissed suggestions that government super tax concession money could be better spent elsewhere, as superannuation lifted household savings by 2 percentage points of GDP, increasing to 2.5 per cent under an increased compulsory superannuation guarantee.
Superannuation benefit payments already boosted public domestic demand by over $50 billion a year, with the potential to increase fourfold by 2040, according to ASFA.
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