ECT needs to be back on policy agenda
Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAA) superannuation specialist Liz Westover has pointed to an upcoming Inspector-General of Taxation review of excess contributions as "warranted and well-overdue".
Westover has used the ICAA's website to point out that the Inspector-General's review will be looking at the excess contributions tax (ECT) issue from the point of view of administration of the regime by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), including matters such as timeliness of assessments, procedures for verifying accuracy of information it receives and quality of communications.
Westover said the review was both warranted and well overdue – and she was hopeful it would bring excess contributions back onto the radar of issues to be addressed at a policy level.
"While I believe the Inspector-General should look at the ATO’s handling of administrative aspects of ECT, more fundamentally, the measures surrounding this tax need to be addressed by Government," she said.
"We need to go much further than look at the administration of ECT by the ATO – we need to see changes to remove this onerous tax altogether," Westover said.
She said she believed it was not, nor would it ever be, fair or equitable to tax a person who makes a mistake and contributes too much money into their superannuation fund.
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