Govt could do more to create super tax equity

8 July 2014
| By Kate Cowling |
image
image
expand image

The Government must ensure superannuation tax concessions are channelled into building retirement income for Australians who need it, rather than propping up the wealth of those with adequate savings, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) says.  

“While tax concessions are a very important feature of our superannuation system, once people have accumulated more than enough money to fund a comfortable lifestyle in retirement, they no longer require government assistance,” ASFA’s CEO Pauline Vamos said.   

She said there are a number of policy levers that could be pulled to further promote the equity of the superannuation tax system, including applying a lifetime cap to non-concessional contributions and removing concessional tax treatment for those with balances over $2.5 million.   

“This would help ensure that people are using superannuation as a means to provide enough income for a comfortable retirement, and not for wealth accumulation or estate planning purposes,” says Ms Vamos.  

However, Vamos said it was heartening to find that most superannuation tax concessions flow to middle-income earning Australians.   

ASFA’s data showed 75 per cent of the concessions in fact went to those paying the 30 per cent or 38 per cent marginal tax rate.   

“This provides evidence that the contribution caps, which have been lowered substantially over the past few years, are working to reduce the concessional contributions made by upper-income earners, while continuing to provide support to the majority of Australians to help them save for their retirement.”  

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

1 year 5 months ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

1 year 6 months ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

1 year 6 months ago

Private market assets in super have surged, while private debt recorded the fastest growth among all investment types....

1 hour 45 minutes ago

The equities investor has launched a new long-short fund seeded by UniSuper, targeting alpha from ASX 300 equities using AI insights....

1 hour 49 minutes ago

The fund has strengthened efforts to boost gender diversity, targeting 40:40:20 balance across its investment teams by 2030....

1 hour 52 minutes ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
92.15 3 y p.a(%)
3