Legislative Developments Affecting Superannuation

Tony Negline

There are two important legislative issues to discuss this week:

1. Super gearing changes

The legislation - discussed in earlier additions of this publication - making these changes progressed through Parliament very late on the last sitting day of the budget sittings. (It had initially seemed that it had failed to finish its passage through the Senate.)

It seems that it has gone through Parliament unamended.

The revised super gearing rules will begin on the day the legislation received Royal Assent. As of last night (28 June) the Parliamentary website was not reporting that this had occurred.

2. Excess contributions

Last week the Government introduced legislation to adjust how excess contributions are treated.

There are three changes:

The ATO will be allowed to "disregard (or reallocate) contributions for the purposes of excess contributions tax without first issuing an excess contributions tax assessment"; the Tax Office will only be allowed to make these determinations once all "the contributions to be disregarded or reallocated have been made". If you receive an excess contributions tax assessment the existing application period of 60 days following the receipt of the assessment applies, or a longer period" as allowed by the ATO
A taxpayer can object to an excess contributions tax assessment if they're not happy with the ATO determination or its failure not to make a determination
The ATO's decision will form part of the process of making an assessment of tax for the purposes of the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977

Importantly there is no change to how the ATO can make an excess contribution assessment. That is, "special circumstances" have to exist.

Given that there is little change in how the ATO has to go about making a decision then it will be interesting to see if this change has any significant impact.

These provisions are expected to begin when this legislation receives Royal Assent. If an election is called then this legislation may lapse and it will only become law if it is reintroduced.

From a political point of view the Government can be said to be "doing something".

Finally please consider purchasing a copy of my book. You can look at the contents page at the following link: http://www.atcbiz.com.au/r.php?r=0mjd6ne

The second edition has just been released.

Two options are available - once only subscription - $55 inc GST - or an annual subscription will gives you access to all the updates made throughout the year ($120 inc GST). The book can be purchased at the following link: http://www.atcbiz.com.au/r.php?r=5a4agqb

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