In this edition:
Government and Regulator Interaction
With the first Parliamentary sittings for 2023 held in early February, the secretariat met with representatives from the Government, Opposition, and Crossbench to discuss a range of issues including:
- ASFA’s Pre-Budget submission, including equity measures and Superannuation Guarantee (SG) compliance
- the Quality of Advice Review
- the objective of super
- the Your Future, Your Super Review
- super funds investing in the economy
- tax/NALE (non arm’s length expenditure).
Research and submissions
A pre-Budget submission was made to Treasury for the 2023/24 Federal Budget, calling for:
- improved compliance with SG obligations
- a review of the treatment of superannuation payments made by insolvent employers
- introducing SG on paid parental leave
- increasing the upper threshold for the low income tax offset
- improving equity of superannuation by reducing the amount of tax concessions going to individuals with a relatively high income and/or account balance.
A submission was made in response to the Committee’s inquiry into the Treasury Laws Amendment (2022 Measures No 4) Bill 2022 (the Bill). This submission is focused on Schedule 6, with respect to financial reporting and auditing requirements for superannuation entities, and Schedule 9, which contains amendments to the taxation treatment of military (and certain other) superannuation benefits, to reverse the impact of the 2020 decision of the Full Federal Court in Federal Commissioner of Taxation v Douglas.
Media
The ASFA Retirement Standard was featured in an article in the Canberra Times.
ASFA’s call in its pre-Budget submission for directors of companies which fail to meet their SG obligations to be identified as non-compliant by both the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) was featured in an article in Financial Newswire.
ASFA’s CEO Dr Fahy was featured in an article in Money Magazine welcoming the changes to downsizer contributions to support people in making additional contributions to superannuation.
A study conducted by NAB in conjunction with ASFA on the Portfolio Holdings Disclosure (PHD) of fourteen large super funds was featured in an article in Investor Strategy.
ASFA’s pre-Budget submission, which included a call for a $5 million cap on superannuation benefits, was featured in an article in The Australian.
The ASFA Retirement Standard was featured in an article in Downsizing.
Events and Learning
The ASFA team will be delivering the following events and learning workshops in February:
- ASFA Conference: 21-23 February, Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre
- Trustee resilience and holistic capital management: 21 Feb
- Financial advice in super: 21 Feb
