Government urged to focus on superannuation anomalies
Moves by the Australian Greens to persuade the Government to introduce a scaled tax on superannuation contributions has been vetoed by the Self Managed Super Fund Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA).
The Australian Greens' leader, Bob Brown, announced his party's policy approach last week, but SPAA warned that such a move, effectively aimed at cutting tax concessions for higher income earners, would serve to undermine the incentive for Australians to build an appropriate retirement nest-egg.
"Rather than penalising those who are saving through superannuation for an independent life post-working age, the Government should turn its attention to the considerable ongoing barriers to all Australians saving adequately for their retirement," SPAA chief executive Andrea Slattery said.
Referring to the Government's proposals last year to introduce a maximum fund balance limit of $500,000 in order to access higher contributions caps, SPAA reiterated that not only would that proposal add a large layer of complexity to the system, it would also ignore variations in work and savings patterns of different individuals.
It warned that this would be particularly the case with women, "for whom superannuation balances are inordinately low".
SPAA also cited the harshness of the current excess contributions tax (ECT) regime as a further major barrier and disincentive for people to save as much as they are able to.
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