Morrison accuses Labor of costing retirees $3.75 billion

ALP/APRA/

19 April 2018
| By Hannah Wootton |
image
image image
expand image

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has yet again hit out against Labor’s dividend imputation proposal, saying that the “bungled and damaging retiree tax” would “rip” $3.75 billion out of 2.6 million Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) regulated superannuation funds.

Morrison said that, despite Labor’s “so-called” pensioner guarantee, pensioners whose APRA funds were affected would not be exempt from the policy.

According to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), franking credit refunds in 2015-16 were worth over $300 million to APRA-regulated funds. Morrison said that when consideration is taken for the fact that these funds would not only lose income but also couldn’t make returns on it, the real dollar cost of the policy to such funds would have been $3.75 billion over the last decade.

“Labor's proposal is an old-fashioned Labor tax sledgehammer targeted at pensioners and retirees to grab as much tax as possible because they can't live within their means and control their spending. It's a tax on low and middle-income Australians and their future retirement nest eggs,” Morrison said.

He attacked Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, for standing by the policy despite its possible impact on retirees.

“Remarkably, Chris Bowen released a statement today confirming and bragging about the fact billions of dollars would be wiped from hundreds of thousands of super accounts, that pensioners won't be exempt and that Labor doesn't care,” Morrison said.

“Rather than patting himself on the back for ripping billions out of the retirement savings of pensioners and retirees, Chris Bowen should put his hand up, admit his proposal stinks and drop it.”

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

5 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

5 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

7 months ago

Commonwealth Bank has formally dropped to zero advisers following LGT Crestone’s acquisition of its advice arm – some six years on from the Hayne royal commission. ...

4 weeks ago

The FSCP has issued a written direction to an adviser who charged clients “extraordinary fees” for inappropriate and conflicted advice, as well as encouraged them to swit...

1 week 4 days ago

ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of an advice firm associated with Shield and First Guardian collapses, and permanently banned its responsible manager. ...

2 weeks 6 days 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