Government limits superannuation fiddling
The Federal Government has delivered no surprises with respect to the superannuation system in this evening’s Budget.
The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, confined the Budget’s announcements on superannuation to those which had been announced by the Government in early April – lowering the tax concessions applying to super investments returning more than $100,000 a year, and providing a higher concessional contribution for those aged over 60.
Swan also referred to previous Budget announcements by reiterating that the Government was “improving the fairness of concessions for contributing to superannuation, by ensuring around 3.6 million low income Australians effectively pay no tax on their super guarantee contributions”.
“And we're reducing the tax break on concessional contributions for the top 1 per cent of earners, to bring it more into line with the concession for average wage earners,” he said.
The Government’s limited change to super beyond that announced last month was broadly welcomed by the industry.
Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees’ chief executive, Tom Garcia said the Budget had contained no surprises for superannuation and “should provide stability for all Australians saving for their retirement”.
“With so much uncertainty and confusion around superannuation policy since the start of the year, it was good to see that this Budget was free of any major new announcements affecting super fund members and confirmed measures announced by the Government in April,” he said.
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