If a change of government occurs after the federal election this year, advisers will need to communicate effectively in order keep their SMSF clients informed of all the superannuation changes on hand, an SMSF strategist has said.
“Two thousand and nineteen is a year of change … and I can’t say that it’s great,” I Love SMSF founder Grant Abbott said during his latest webinar.
“But as long as we stick together, have leadership, work through these changes and make sure that our clients are well aware of what’s coming down the track, then we should be fine.”
Abbott pointed out many of the changes to superannuation that will occur if there is a change in government have already been declared by Labor.
These include scrapping imputation credit refunds to certain retirees, reducing the non-concessional contributions cap from $100,000 to $75,000, abolishing the ability to roll forward unused concessional contributions cap amounts over a five-year period, and levying a 15 per cent contributions tax on taxable incomes in excess of $200,000.
However, he predicted there were other possible policy items to come from Labor that had not yet been revealed.
“The $1.6 million transfer balance cap will be reduced quite significantly [because you should not] be surprised if they come out with their original measure, which was in the last election, of having a $75,000 tax exemption [for pension accounts], which [translates into a cap] of around about $1.5 million rather than the cap they’ve got at the moment,” he warned.
With a view to protecting the interests of SMSFs, he announced the birth of a new political party he is establishing called The SMSF Party.
“The party is to grow, preserve and protect SMSFs and also superannuation in Australia,” he said.
The party is looking to endorse candidates to run for both houses of parliament.
“The lobbying activities are not going to work. This is the only way forward I can see that will allow a meaningful shift so that people will actually listen to us,” Abbott said.
The organisation is in the process of garnering the 500 members it requires to register itself as a political party with the electoral office.
Details of the party and its political platform can be found at www.thesmsfparty.com.
