The following Bills were passed by the Senate on Mon 24.6.2013, without amendment and now effectively await Royal Assent:
- Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (Increased Concessional Contributions Cap and Other Measures) Bill 2013 – The Bill, which had passed the House of Reps without amendment, contains the following amendments: (i) proposes to increase the concessional contributions cap temporarily to $35,000 for the 2013-14 financial year for individuals aged 60 years and over, and to $35,000 for the 2014-15 financial year and later financial years for individuals aged 50 years and over. The temporary cap will cease when the general cap indexes to $35,000; (ii) would amend the income tax and superannuation law and the TAA to reduce the tax concession for concessionally taxed superannuation contributions of very high income earners by 15%.
- Superannuation (Sustaining the Contribution Concession) Imposition Bill 2013 – contains the mechanism by which the tax concession referred to in the above Bill is reduced. The Bill also proposes consequential amendments to legislation concerning some of the Commonwealth defined benefit superannuation plans where members of those plans are affected by the reduction in the tax concession for concessionally taxed superannuation contributions. The Bill had passed the House of Reps without amendment.
- Superannuation Laws Amendment (MySuper Capital Gains Tax Relief and Other Measures) Bill 2013 – proposes to amend the ITAA 1997 to facilitate the MySuper reforms by providing income tax relief to superannuation funds where there is a mandatory transfer of default members’ account balances to a MySuper product in another superannuation fund. The Bill had been passed by the House of Reps with 2 Government amendments.
- Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Service Providers and Other Governance Measures) Bill [2012] 2013 – introduced on 29 November 2012, this Bill contains the 4th and final tranche of the MySuper and governance measures as part of the Government’s Stronger Super reforms. The Bill had been amended in the House of Reps on 15 May 2013 concerning, for example, infringement notices, collection and disclosure of information, the MySuper admin fee rules, etc.
[LTN 120, 125/6/13]