Opposition seeks Govt assurances on superannuation taxation
The Federal Opposition has sought to ramp up pressure on the Government to rule out any changes to the superannuation tax regime aimed at helping it meet its promise of a Budget surplus in the current financial year.
The Opposition spokesman on Financial Services, Senator Mathias Cormann, called on the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten, to rule out any further changes, claiming the Government's previous tinkering had badly undermined the level of salary sacrifice contributions.
At the same time, Tasmanian Liberal Senator and chair of the Senate Economics References Committee, Senator David Bushby, claimed questions on notice directly relating to the Government's superannuation policy had remained unanswered for four months.
"Their refusal to give assurances that there will be no additional adverse tax tinkering measures in the next Budget only adds weight to reports that an axe hangs over superannuation funds," he said.
The warnings from Bushby and Cormann came within hours of AMP Limited releasing new data within the latest AMP Retirement Adequacy Index pointing to a significant fall-off in salary sacrifice contributions, particularly among the older Australians more likely to put more into superannuation as they approach retirement.
Bushby pointed out that he had placed a question on notice in May asking for an explanation from Treasury about why Australian Bureau of Statistics December quarter data had revealed a 2.5 per cent decline in contributions, despite there being positive economic growth over the period.
That question asked whether the Treasury could give assurances that there would be "no additional adverse tax tinkering measures in Budget 2013".
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