KPMG tax partner Dana Fleming says while the announced changes, such as the increase in tax offsets associated with contributions to low income spouse accounts and the low income superannuation tax offset, will go some way to improving the retirement balances of women, more work needs to be done by the government in this space.
Ms Fleming told SMSF Adviser the government has announced that tax offsets associated with contributions to low income spouse accounts, most of which are accounts held by women, will be extended with eligible recipients’ income limits increased from $10,800 to $37,000.
“The government has also announced changes which will allow those with superannuation balances of less than $500,000 to rollover their unused concessional cap amounts for a period of five years.”
“The government’s budgetary announcements are welcomed as they address many of the KPMG proposals and the recommendations of the bipartisan Economics References Committee. However, much more needs to be done to remove the gender retirement incomes gap.”
Other areas the government needs to consider, Ms Fleming said, include applying the superannuation guarantee to income replacement payments such paid parental leave and workers compensation.
In a paper on the issue of gender super imbalance, Ms Fleming also stressed the need to address the wider pay gap disparity between men and women in order to boost retirement balances for women.
“[The] retirement income parity for women with men can only be substantially addressed by addressing the wider socio-economic inequities that result in women earning less income than men,” she said.
“The recent Senate Economic References Committee report clearly shows that we still have a long way to go.”
The central fallacy of this argument is it that ignores the simple and obvious fact that family incomes are pooled. Very few married men or women will tell you their incomes are for beer and skittles or dresses and perfumes. There’s not much point to fiscal plundering one sex to enrich the other. In fact, families do a lot to reverse income redistribution – witness the inheritance of assets test free family homes.
Dr Terry Dwyer
Dwyer Lawyers
http://www.dwyerlawyers.com.au