Aaron Dunn, CEO of Smarter SMSF, told delegates at the SMSF Adviser technical summit in Melbourne yesterday (8 October) that it seems the government’s focus will be on intergenerational equity, a topic that was raised at the Economic Roundtable in August.
“There was a focus on what they referred to as the intergenerational equity, and that is also lined up to the Objective the Superannuation, which talks about equity, fairness, sustainability and so forth, and is a policy driver around superannuation,” Dunn said.
“The question then becomes, how are they going to look at addressing this particular issue? Is it as simple as addressing the concerns that were raised around unrealised capital gains, lack of indexation? Or does it mean that they are going back to the drawing board and revisit the way in which the superannuation tax concessions actually look?”
Dunn said that looking at the history of superannuation in Australia, it seems that reform happens in 10-year cycles. He said that in May 2006, the Coalition government announced measures to introduce what it called the “simple, better suitable reforms”.
“That took off from 1 July 2007. In the May 2016 budget, we saw the government at that point in time under Scott Morrison, introduce superannuation reforms. We’ve dealt with the transfer balance cap and a range of matters around those measures, which commenced on 1 July 2017 – a 10-year time frame. And now, if you’re a numbers person, we are due for some reform in the May budget next year,” he said.
However, Dunn said that the extent to which reforms will take is still unclear, as the proposed $3 million super tax still remains in limbo, and reports suggest that the government is reviewing the draft legislation it originally put forward in 2023.
“Going back and trying to read the tea leaves, it does make for what will be an interesting next 12 months,” Dunn said.
“And it’s a timely reminder for people to be patient. When advisers are talking to clients, they should make sure they are dealing with law and not lore. It’s the importance of understanding that the needle can move, and move very quickly, in Canberra.”
Dunn added that it was not too long ago that the stage-three tax cuts changes were made off the back of multiple months where the Labor government said there would be none.
“It’s all about what numbers need to happen and what ultimately will occur off the back of that – that will become important,” Dunn said.
“But it’s important to have these conversations with clients. There may be other reasons [rather than the super tax] that clients want to move assets. given you may be considering intergenerational issues, but if you’re doing it for the specific purpose of reducing tax, then you are not currently dealing with law, you are still ultimately working within an unknown environment.”
There is already an additional tax on concessional contributions and all other income if the total of taxable income plus contributions exceeds $250,000. I have a client who realised a large capital gain on sale of an investment property. The capital gain was partly sheltered by “carry forward concessional contributions” but as these are added back, she has been charged 30% contributions tax not 15%. The size of the capital gain also resulted in about 75% of the taxable portion being subject to the top marginal rate of 47% (incl Medicare). Given that this is a higher tax rate likely to be the case with most realised capital gains added to all other taxable income, why is it necessary to introduce a separate tax on unrealised gains. It seems apparent that the Treasurer has little or no understanding of current taxation rules.