The head of a large asset manager has described the proposed Division 296 tax as being un-Australian and running against the accepted ethos of the country.
“[We think this is] un-Australian in terms of what’s being done. Self-managed super [means] you’ve got your own control [over your retirement savings and] you can make your own decisions,” Wilson Asset Management chair and chief investment officer Geoff Wilson told attendees of the SMSF Association Technical Summit 2025 breakfast in Sydney today.
“[The government] is changing how you can invest your money [and leading people to ask themselves] why take risk in your self-managed super fund.
“To me it’s really sad in terms of breaching that [concept of] the fair go and letting Australians do what they always do well.”
Wilson shared a conversation he had recently with an SMSF trustee that reflected this very sentiment. The individual in question had enjoyed significant growth in his SMSF portfolio, building it up to a value of around $250,000 in a fairly short period of time.
“He [told me the government] has broken its social contract with him. To me that’s actually devastating to young people who want to get on in life,” Wilson said.
According to Wilson, the proposed Division 296 tax has the real potential to impact young superannuants immediately, particularly those who are keen to invest in digital assets such as cryptocurrency.
To this end, he recognised the role cryptocurrency is currently playing in the establishment of SMSFs.
“For people setting up [SMSFs] now, on average 7 per cent are in crypto,” he said.
“I caught up with someone who has actually left Australia … because of this and this person was all in [with] bitcoin in his super fund and it was a significant super fund. He said [with a combination of the volatility and the Division 296 tax], I’ll be insolvent.”
With regard to advocating against the tax, he suggested there was a real opportunity to galvanise this younger cohort of superannuants.
