SUPERCentral News

Two significant deeming thresholds will increase on 1 July 2026. The first is the threshold at which the higher deeming rate of 3.25% applies. The second is the income free threshold at which income in excess of the threshold begins to reduce the maximum age pension amount.

Small business turnover threshold for the CGT small business concessions will increase to $10m from the current $2m. This change is proposed to apply from 1 July 2027. Currently, one access condition, for the CGT small business concession is that the taxpayer (or affiliate or connected entity) carries on a business with a turnover (on an aggregated basis) of less than $2m.

With little policy justification (other than a political trade off and a vague reference to concerns that residential Limited Recourse Borrowing Arrangements (LRBAs) raise risks for superannuation investors) the Government has announced (by Press Release dated 23 June 2026) that it will support a Green’s proposal to ban future LRBAs where the asset is residential real estate – “residential LRBAs”.

As you are no doubt aware From 1 July 2026 under new Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Funding Laws we are now required to conduct Customer Due Diligence (CDD) to verify clients identity and obtain additional information before we can provide designated services.

The following contribution caps will apply for the 2026/27 financial year. The contribution caps determine the amount of contributions which receive favourable tax treatment. If the contribution caps are exceeded, then the excess amount will receive less favourable tax treatment.

While three significant changes were announced in the 2027 Federal Budget (that is the Federal Budget for 2026/27 financial year) to the taxation of capital gains, negative gearing and discretionary trust distributions, these changes will not apply to superannuation funds including self managed superannuation funds.

From 1 July 2026, the system for mandatory employer superannuation contributions (SG system) will move from a quarterly in arrears payment arrangement to a PayDay arrangement – where the employer contribution must (subject to limited exceptions) be made within seven days of the payment of the employee’s wages and salary. It seems many employers will make their PayDay SG contributions on the same day as their wages/salary runs.

Trustees and members need to ensure that each pension will satisfy the “minimum drawdown requirement” before the end of the financial year. Early detection of a likely underpayment means that corrective action can be taken before and hopefully well before 30 June 2026.

Currently before Parliament is a bill which will amend the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (“SIS Act”) to permit an individual – the nominee - approved by the Public Trustee of a state or territory to act as a trustee (or a director of a corporate trustee) of a self managed superannuation fund. The individual could be but need not be an employee of the Public Trustee.

From time to time enquiries are made, which are of general interest, such as an enquiry as to the CGT election which applies for the purposes of the new Division 296 – this is the Division of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. Click here to read more.

Now that the season of indexation is upon us, the first significant figure to be indexed is the Transfer Balance Cap. This Cap is the limit on the amount of superannuation which can be transferred from the accumulation phase (that is the taxable phase) to the retirement phase (that is the tax free phase).

The Centrelink deeming rates will be increased to 1.25% (“below threshold rate”) and 3.25% (“above threshold rate”) from, respectively, 0.75% and 2.75%.

The age pension for single pensioners will increase to $1,200.90 per fortnight (from, $1,178.70 per fortnight).

This issue of SC News discusses the passed legislation dealing with Division 296 tax and deals with the more significant impacts of the legislation as it applies to SMSFs.

Click here to see the impacts of Division 296 tax on Trust Deeds/Governing Rules, SMSF Trustees, Members, Advisers and Accountants.

The Missing Piece of Legacy Pension Reform is now in place with the New Guidelines for Asset-Test Exempt (ATE) Income Streams having been issued. The New Guidelines confirm that income streams which had ATE status immediately before the commencement of the Legacy Pension Reform retain that status despite now being commutable.

The Treasurer has announced (Monday 13 October 2025) that the proposed additional tax of 15% on earnings attributable to large super balances is no longer on the drawing board. Instead, a revised, reworked and considerably more super friendly replacement tax, will apply.

Compulsory Superannuation has one negative feature. For individuals with low taxable incomes there is no tax benefit from the “concessional” tax treatment of super contributions.

SUPERCentral News does not normally cover Opposition legislative bills (as they are not in Government and their bills usually go nowhere), however, we must make an exception for Senator Hume’s “Tackling the Gender Super Gap” Bill.

First, and most significant, the deeming rates used for the income means test will increase by 50 basis points......