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Superannuation policy divides voters in lead-up to election
While an industry poll has shown that the Liberal Party is the preferred party based on superannuation policy, with only 58 per cent voting in favour of the Liberals, there is still strong division among voters.
A straw poll conducted by SMSF Adviser with a total of 963 respondents has shown that the majority of SMSF professionals in the poll think the Liberal Party will deliver better outcomes on superannuation policy.
Out of the respondents in the poll, 58.4 per cent said that the Liberal Party would deliver better outcomes for superannuation.
This was followed by the Labor Party at 22.6 per cent and the minor parties at 19 per cent.
Superannuation is once again a key policy issue this election, with both major parties announcing their own set of superannuation measures.
One of the most significant policies put forward by Labor is their proposal to remove cash refunds for excess dividend imputation credits, which is intended to apply from 1 July 2019.
While Labor has announced an exemption for recipients of government pensions or allowances, based on figures by the Parliamentary Budget Office, the measure is estimated to impact 840,000 individual taxpayers, 210,000 SMSFs and 2,300 APRA-regulated funds, including industry and retail funds.
Labor has also announced that it intends to reinstate the 10 per cent test for claiming deductions for personal super contributions and cut the non-concessional contribution cap to $75,000. This would also result in the three-year bring-forward amount being reduced to $225,000.
It has also announced that it will ban SMSFs from entering into new limited recourse borrowing arrangements.
The Liberal Party, on the other hand, is pushing ahead with its measure to increase the SMSF member limit as an election policy, despite the removal of the measure shortly before Parliament was dissolved.
The Liberal Party also announced an amendment in the budget which will enable Australians aged 65 and 66 to make voluntary superannuation contributions even if they do not meet the current work test requirement to work at least 40 hours over a 30-day period in the year they seek to make contributions.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also guaranteed “no new taxes on superannuation”. However, there is no specified time frame for this promise.
The Liberal Party implemented most of its major changes to superannuation as part of the 2016 budget when it introduced the transfer balance cap, changes to contribution caps and the $500,000 lifetime cap for non-concessional contributions, which was later dropped.
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
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