The Budget delivered a back-handed win for the Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals' Association (SPAA), confirming a two-year delay in the deferral of a higher concessional contributions cap, but with a lower interim cap than the SPAA had advocated.
SPAA supports the delay, but has insisted on a flat $35,000 concessional contributions cap to apply to all individuals over 50 in the interim.
The Treasurer's decision to cap concessional contributions at $25,000 is "disappointing", they said, and will make it difficult for individuals approaching retirement to adequately save for retirement.
The decision to apply a 30 per cent contributions tax for individuals earning over $300,000 undermines confidence in the retirement income system and penalises individuals at the peak of their earning capacity, according to SPAA. They said the Government still needs to clarify "income" and how the tax will be collected.
"The superannuation sector is heavily regulated and SPAA opposes measures which encourage the use of alternative, less regulated, tax favoured retirement savings vehicles," SPAA said.
Both measures will affect the ability of those with broken work patterns to adequately save for their retirement, SPAA said.
They did agree with the ASIC registration of SMSF auditors including the mandatory competency exam, but questioned whether concessions would apply to SMSF auditors who have completed more than the prescribed minimum number of SMSF audits in the past 12 months.
The SPAA also noted the Government's ambiguity surrounding the financial advisers' exemption from compliance with the Tax Agent Services Act 2009, saying the extra time it has given to financial advisers should be adequate to ensure government and industry get it right.
