SUPERCentral News
The ATO has released another Taxpayer Alert warning super investors against taking up offers of early release of their preserved benefits.
Super investors who are considering taking advantage of the 3 Year Bring Forward may need to consider, with their advisers, whether to delay triggering the bring forward until July 2009.
Concessional Contribution Cap for 2009/10 - Non-concessional Contributions Cap for 2009/10 - Three year “bring forward” of Non-concessional Contributions Cap for 2009/10 - CGT Contributions Cap for 2009/10 - Low tax rate Cap - Government Co-Contribution eligibility thresholds
Regulations to implement the concession to only require 50% of the minimum pension limit which would otherwise be required to be made for account-based pensions, transition to retirement pensions, allocated pensions and market linked pensions have now been made.
From 20 March 2009 the Social Security Deeming Rates are 2% and 3%.
APRA figures for the year ended 30 June 2008 (the most recently release figures) indicate that the largest super sector (by asset value) is the SMSF sector.
One aspect of the GFC which has not received much media attention is the impact of the decline in asset values on defined benefit superannuation schemes.
Recently released APRA/ATO statistics suggest that in 2007/08 super contributions equalled 25% of total salary and wages.
Budget season is fast approaching – only about 50 contributing days to Budget 2008 – so what will happen on the super front?
The union movement – courtesy of the ACTU – is making the first soundings of an increase in the Super Rate from the current level of 9% to 12% or even higher. The increase is proposed to occur over a number of years.
The Government has recently released a Consultation Paper on First Home Saver Accounts, which hopefully will be shortened to “Saver Accounts”.
The in house asset rules require that in house assets must not be more than 5% of the value of all assets of the fund, and also that a fund cannot acquire an in house asset if, as a result of the acquisition, the value of in house assets would exceed 5%.
A member contribution is any contribution other than a contribution made by an employer for a member.
The SIS Regulation 7.04(3) imposes a limit on the size of member contributions which the trustee can accept.
SMSFs which were established in 2007/08 are required to lodge their 2008 annual returns by 28 February 2009.
In yet another fetter on a person’s ability to direct where their assets will go after their death, the Uniform Succession Act provisions, agreed to by all States and recently passed in NSW in the Succession Bill, will give the Court the power to rule that a person’s Binding Death Benefit Nomination should not be followed or should be amended.
There seems to be growing speculation – from the super industry and from the trade union movement – that the 9% compulsory super should be increased to 15%.
The New South Wales Government’s recent announcement that it will pass laws to limit the fees lawyers can charge in contested estate disputes is really ‘much ado about nothing’.
This previously announced measure has now been included in the new Government’s first legislative change to Superannuation. Super lump sum payments to members who are terminally ill will be tax free. This measure will apply to payments made on or after 1 July 2007 (the previous Government proposed that the exemption apply from 12 September 2007).
The financial press has recently noted that Industry funds have outperformed their retails counterparts (outperformed in the sense of lost less) by almost 6% in respect of 2008, while for previous years the outperformance was 2%.