‘We aren't ever going to increase taxes on super’: Abbott
Despite Treasury documents suggesting the government was looking at changing super tax concessions, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ruled out his government ever increasing taxes on superannuation.
Mr Abbott said the government has “made a very clear decision” that it won’t ever increase taxes on superannuation, Fairfax Media originally reported.
This is in line with the Liberal party’s pre-election promise not to make any detrimental changes to superannuation within its first term of government.
It also comes as reports surface that a Treasury letter shows the government was looking into options to change tax concessions, until the Labor party released its super policy.
The Labor party is now reportedly calling for the documents to be released.
“If the Abbott government truly has nothing to hide on plans to super tax concessions then there should be no problems releasing these documents,” said shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, according to reports from The Guardian.
In late April, federal opposition leader Bill Shorten outlined Labor’s tax policy for superannuation, which includes taxing earnings in retirement at 15 per cent for those earning over $75,000 and reducing the threshold of the high-income super charge from $300,000 to $250,000.
The policy was met with mixed reactions, with The SMSF Association’s Graeme Colley saying he is wary of basing policy decisions on the estimated cost of superannuation tax concessions, given the poor reliability of Treasury’s figures.
At this point, as far as major changes to super tax concessions go, the government has committed only to taking the Tax White Paper’s “good ideas” for super to the next federal election.
