Last week, the Senate granted an extension of the review of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions and Other Measures) Bill 2023 and the Superannuation (Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions) Imposition Bill 2023. A final report is due on 10 May.
A final report on the Bill was originally slated to be released on 19 April.
Peter Burgess, CEO of the SMSFA, told SMSF Adviser that if passed in its current form, this new tax would fundamentally change the Australian taxation system and provide a precedent for the taxation of unrealised gains.
“As we have pointed out in our submissions, this is a complex tax which contains several unintended consequences and distorted outcomes,” Burgess said.
“Based on our discussions with members of the Senate crossbench, there is plenty of concern about the lack of indexation and the taxation of unrealised capital gains, and we expect these aspects of this new tax will be scrutinised during the upcoming Senate inquiry.”
Burgess said the SMSFA has provided the Teals and the Senate crossbench with a simple and concise set of amendments that provide for indexation and substantially remove the taxation of unrealised capital gains.
“While these amendments will result in lower-than-expected government revenue from this new tax, in the broader scheme of things it’s no more than a rounding error,” he said.
“The amendments substantially simplify this new tax while providing liquidity relief and more certainty for farmers, small business owners and others, who otherwise face the prospect of being taxed on amounts they haven’t received or may never receive.”
Labor has form in taxing unrealised capital gains. Specifically, stock options issued by tech companies that may or may not ever realise a capital gain. I believe this has been repealed.