Stop toying with superannuation tax rules, SPAA demands

The Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals' Association (SPAA) has advised the Federal Government to stop playing with the tax regime for superannuation funds.

SPAA said the Government's cutting super tax breaks to pay for its policies on education and disability showed it was using superannuation as a short-term budget fix.

"There is a real pattern emerging here. On the one hand the Government gets handed a report that talks about a $1 trillion shortfall in people's retirement income as people live longer, and on the other continually sees people's superannuation savings as a short-term fiscal measure," SPAA chief executive Andrea Slattery said.

She said the industry had only just adjusted to recent Budget changes, and it would be unreasonable for the Government to introduce new changes now.

VIEW ALL

View all

"The industry has had to readjust to the recent changes in the Budget, and for the Government to now introduce further measures to meet its short-term spending priorities would be a body blow," she said.

Slattery also said the industry should stop harping on about regulating the SMSF industry. It was regulated by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and would operate under a new registration regime under the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.

"Every fund is audited every year, and considering most funds have only one or two members, it typically means each member's balance is audited annually.

"It's simply not right to say the sector has not been subject to the same level of scrutiny or review as the other superannuation sectors," she said.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) requested in a submission to Treasury that SMSFs be subject to Australian Prudential Regulation Authority levies, while a number of industry figures have spoken out about the need to regulate the SMSF industry.