SUPERCentral News
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......
Assuming the relevant legislative requirements for a limited recourse borrowing arrangement are otherwise satisfied, can the trustee borrow simply to pay the GST on the acquisition of the single acquirable property?
This would be serious news if the Clearing House was a pub for superannuation lawyers to gossip and otherwise exchange technical information. However, it is not. Fortunately, that pub still operates.
A recently released Private Binding Ruling (reference details at the end of the article) has highlighted the need to ensure that the ATO paperwork is correct before you lodge your tax return.
Each 1 July, the deeming rate thresholds and the “tax free area” are indexed with reference to the Consumer Price Index.
When the Federal Parliament was prorogued to facilitate the 2 May 2025 election, all Bills then before Parliament lapsed.
For super members currently trapped in market linked pensions and who wish to cash out or transfer the pension to an account based pension – now is the time to take action.
SUPERCentral has recently released a comprehensive range of SMSF tool kit documents required to record management decisions for Self Managed Super Funds (SMSF).
The Age Pension is indexed twice yearly with effect from 20 March and 20 September. The 20 March 2025 indexation increased the maximum age pension rates as follows:
The ATO has now released the increased superannuation caps which will apply for the 2026 tax year. The more significant caps are set out below.
The recent legacy pension reforms of December 2024 allows non-commutable pensions to be commuted if the commutation was a 100% commutation and the commutation occurred within a five year window commencing on 7 December 2024. The legacy pension reforms also amended the rules relating to the allocation of surplus pension reserves – this aspect of the reform is not presently relevant.
Exactly the same issues apply where a service pensioner is receiving an asset-test exempt pensions. The definition is that, to date, no equivalent to the Specification has been issued in respect of the Veteran’s Entitlements Act 1986.
We are pleased to advise that your firm now has access to the new SUPERCentral SMSF Toolkit, a powerful resource with over 100 populating online documents. Legally updated on a regular basis to protect against client and Adviser risk, our SMSF Toolkit packs provide the essential documentation you need to effectively record a fund’s actions and ensure full compliance at a low single use price. Your SMSF toolkit includes …
This is a special issue of SUPERCentral News dealing with Market-Linked Pensions. These pensions can now be terminated with the consequence that the member account balance previously supporting the pension could be cashed out, retained in fund as an accumulation phase or the account balance used to commence an account-based pension.
Can a spouse benefit from or be expected to benefit from a death benefit which has been paid to the estate of the deceased member where the spouse survives the member but dies before the benefit is paid?
A recent case, the MTBW Case has highlighted the interaction between the carry forward of unused concessional contributions cap space and the claw back of the tax concession for superannuation contributions in respect of high income earners by Division 293. The case clearly illustrates what (tax concessions) Caesar gives, Caesar can also take back.