The federal opposition has declared it will scrap the Division 296 tax policy that imposes a 15 per cent impost on earnings for total super balances of $3 million or more should the coalition be returned to government at the next election.
Shadow assistant treasurer Luke Howarth confirmed the coalition’s stance on the new tax during a speech at a Financial Services Council event held in Sydney last week.
To this end, Howarth said the measure would be abolished because it is unfair.
“We don’t want additional taxes and people picked out because they [the government] want to spend an additional $3.15 billion a year and want to find ways to pay for it,” he noted.
“The Division 296 [tax] would be one thing that we would reverse and [opposition leader] Peter Dutton has mentioned that as well.”
The Member for Petrie pointed out this has been the coalition’s position on the proposed policy from the moment it was announced and welcomed the fact some of the independent senators in the upper house were now supporting this view as well.
The bill to allow the implementation of the Division 296 tax is currently awaiting further debate in the House of Representatives, which will take place when parliament resumes after its winter break on 13 August.
Many industry bodies, such as the SMSF Association and Institute of Financial Professionals Australia (IFPA), have opposed the measure from the outset.
“Our message is that we oppose the Division 296 tax measure as drafted, in particular, as it taxes unrealised gains and the $3 million threshold is unindexed. If a measure for large superannuation balances is required, then we believe alternative measures should be considered,” IFPA reiterated in its members’ newsletter last Friday.
Earlier in the year, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor labelled the new tax a “shocker”, saying it represented a doubling of taxation on the retirement savings of Australians.
