The Federal Opposition has taken a calculated risk with its proposed changes to dividend imputation according to former Federal Labor Minister and industry funds board member, Greg Combet.
Speaking on a panel at the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds (CMSF), Combet described the policy announcement made by the leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, as “brave but sound”.
“But it is a fair way out from the next Federal election and it sets up Labor to argue its case on the basis of providing personal tax cuts,” he said.
Industry Super Australia (ISA) director of public affairs, Greg Linden described the Labor policy approach as being the result of a “calculated political judgement”.
However, he acknowledged that while most large Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) funds would be largely unaffected, self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) would certainly be impacted.
Linden said the reason large APRA funds would be largely unaffected was because they tended to exhaust their tax credits.
Like Combet, he said the policy would deliver a future Labor Government an enormous amount of flexibility which could help fund tax cuts.
Yes they might be right under basic tax theory but they are absolutely morally wrong as far as pensioners go . It is just a Tax grab and favors the rich who can offset their taxes with the franking credits and not the pensioners who cannot use them.