So, we have the first, almost, confirmed leaks.
Looks as if pre tax $ going into Super on earnings > $180k will be taxed at 30%.. Not too different to back in 2004? with the super surcharge.
I suspect there will be other measures that don't have such a large immediate saving for budget, but will be seen to be 'politically correct'. It would not surprise me to see a cap on after tax contributions for funds over $Xm. Maybe $2m or $3m per person. This could be problematic for joint SMSF where one party has loaded up and the other party has a low balance. I guess they could put a cap on the SMSF with a per person calculation. E.G. for a fund with two members maybe the cap would be $4m or $6m.
Anyone with sufficient funds can, using the bring forward rules, dump $540,000 per person into super if they are worried about a cap being introduced. May be prudent to act prior to the budget. Suspect the smart planners will formulate a way to put this into super prior to budget day, and if no change in the rules take it back out soon afterwards.
Probably the wrong time, but I can see at some stage the family home value being included in the asset test for an age pension. Federal would probably have to offer an interest scheme whereby the age pension was basically a loan to be paid back upon sale or the property or death. These loans could be packaged up and sold onto larger pension funds for long term investment and thus not count as government debt. The Age pension payments would be booked outside of government expenditure and thus over time dramatically reduce the deficit. This would have to be a cross party support change for it to have any chance of get it over the line.
I don't see any tax being introduced on the income, in pension phase, from super as it get too difficult to manage and in any case the really well off ones would simply cash in and move the funds overseas - Panama anyone
Interested in any views.
