The Federal Government has sought to use the latest research commissioned by the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) to prove the Australian Labor Party’s approach to superannuation surcharge has been misguided.
The Assistant Treasurer, Mal Brough said the IFSA research which looked at the intentions of higher income Australians flowing from the Federal Budget measures abolishing the surcharge and imposing tax cuts suggested that Labor’s approach was wrong.
“Labor was wrong on the superannuation surcharge, they were wrong on the superannuation co-contribution scheme and they were wrong on superannuation choice,” Brough said.
The IFSA research, conducted by Eureka Strategic Research, showed that more than half of respondents had indicated they intended increasing their contributions to superannuation over the next 12 months.
IFSA chief executive, Richard Gilbert said this suggested that workers at the higher end of the income tax bracket were preparing to take advantage of the biggest tax reduction on superannuation in recent history.
“15 per cent of those surveyed that didn’t make additional contributions to super in the last 12 months have indicated that they are now likely to make a contribution in the next 12 months,” he said. “This puts the total positive responses by those intending to make additional super contributions at 54 per cent of the sample group surveyed.
“It would be reasonable to assume that quite a few people will at least employ the simple strategy of electing to keep their take-home pay the same and sacrificing the extra salary to their super in order to boost their retirement savings,” Gilbert said. “This research indicates that people saving for their retirement have renewed faith in super after the removal of the surcharge.”
