Adviser tips govt to stall on super tax changes
Recommendations that emerge from the Tax White Paper such as potential changes to the franking credit regime are unlikely to be implemented until after the next federal election, according to one practice principal.
Bluepoint Consulting practice principal Tony Bates told SMSF Adviser that while the Coalition government will eventually want to adopt some of the recommendations of the Tax White Paper as policy, “legislation is still a way off”.
“I think it would be politically challenging for the government, given the current political climate for the Coalition,” said Mr Bates. “I think they’d be pretty brave to take it on prior to an election.”
Aside from examining and changing the franking credit regime, which Mr Bates said is currently very generous, the Tax White Paper will likely also look to even up taxes between the pension phase and accumulation phase.
“They’ve said they’re looking at the relative rate of tax between the pension phase and the accumulation phase and they’ve been quite clear they want to even that up,” said Mr Bates.
“The way I’d interpret that is there’ll be taxes on pensions whereas at the moment a super fund in pension mode is tax exempt so I see that changing and likely to be policy.”
Various industry lobby groups are calling for extensive national tax reform, with a particular focus on superannuation tax concessions.
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
