Superannuation tax concessions need to be explicitly linked to retirement income policy objectives, rather than estate planning, according to Industry Super Australia (ISA).
Responding to the Government’s release of the Tax Discussion Paper yesterday, the ISA pointed to its responses to the Intergenerational Report and claimed that the current tax settings are neither efficient, fair nor reasonable.
The ISA’s Director of Public Affairs, Matt Linden, said there needed to be agreement on the basic proposition that “superannuation is a place for all Australians to save for a decent retirement, not for the privileged few to shelter millions, and in some cases tens of millions, from the taxman”.
“If there is agreement on this basic proposition the potential policy solutions become clearer,” he said. “Achieving agreement on policy settings will help reduce the constant tinkering that undermines public confidence in the system.”
Linden said that private savings, through superannuation were already delivering some relief for the age pension and there was scope for super to deliver a lot more relief but for this to be achieved there needed to be a discussion about the way that retirement savings are taxed.
