News

Super tax doubled for top earners
High-income earners on salaries of more than $300,000 face a doubling of the superannuation contributions tax from July 1, with the Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten stating the government believed super should be taxed concessionally (28 April 2012) More...

Private equity looks to super funds
The chairman of the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, David Brown, says that private equity needs to be included in debate about the exposure of superannuation funds to blue-chip sharemarket investments in Australia (27 April 2012) More...

Super funds forced to come clean
The Gillard government will crack down on conflicts of interest in the $1.3 trillion superannuation industry by imposing tough new rules on trustees who manage employee savings. Super funds will be forced to reveal the remuneration packages of their directors, top executives and fund managers and more details of their investment holdings in a historic shift towards standards similar to those that apply to listed companies (27 April 2012) More...

Government extends CGT relief for super mergers
The government has announced it will grant capital gains tax (CGT) relief for mergers of complying superannuation funds until 1 July 2017. The Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation Bill Shorten announced the government will change the income tax law to support the implementation of its MySuper reforms by encouraging fund mergers that lower fees and costs for members (26 April 2012) More...

Trustee reforms risk being neutered
Speculation is growing that superannuation minister Bill Shorten will announce reforms to the operation of trustee boards, but if the reforms don't take account of trustee companies the reforms will be toothless. The proposals would follow recommendations from the Superannuation System Review conducted by Jeremy Cooper that proposed super funds take on governance characteristics akin to how public companies operate (26 April 2012) More...

FPA and education council call for unified accreditation
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Financial Planning Education Council (FPEC) have launched a national consultation framework on the curriculum and accreditation requirements for financial planning education in Australia, finding that competing professional accreditations are presenting unnecessary complexity to educators (23 April 2012) More...

Insolvency experts slam draft laws on phoenix schemes that could catch out directors
Insolvency experts have reacted negatively to a new draft law released by the Government that would make company directors personally liable if they fail to pay superannuation and other debts, in an attempt to crack down on so-called "phoenix" companies (20 April 2012) More...

Protecting Worker's Entitlements and Strengthening Director Obligations
?Draft legislation released will help to protect workers' superannuation entitlements, according to the Assistant Treasurer. Companies' non-compliance with PAYG withholding and superannuation guarantee obligations will extend the regime to cover Superannuation Guarantee amounts and ensures that fraudulent directors who use phoenix companies to try and avoid their debts will be held personally liable (18 April 2012) More...

Final FOFA guidance by September: ASIC
As part of an ASIC oversight discussion with members of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services late last month, ASIC senior executive leader John Price revealed details of the corporate regulator's planned FOFA guidance, specifically best interest duties, scaled advice, conflicted remuneration provisions and the licensing and banning powers. ASIC plans to release its consultation papers to the market place before 1 July 2012, with final guidance set for September (18 April 2012) More...

Financial services intermediaries
AUSTRAC, survey series no. 5
Most respondents (90%) said that their AML/CTF program or other documentation contained an ML/TF risk assessment. Only slightly more than half of the respondents (55%) said they had in place a method to determine the ML/TF risk rating to apply to their customers (April 2012) More...

APRA Insight, 1st edition - 2012
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has published the first edition of its revised Insight publication with an overview of the superannuation industry and of the Government's Stronger Super reforms (23 April 2012) More...

Superannuation Entities Roundtables April 2012
Notes on Superannuation Entity Roundtables in Sydney and Melbourne held on 12 and 13 April 2012 (24 April 2012) More...

Tax relief for superfund mergers
Given the potential benefits to members of industry consolidation and the possible costs for some entities transitioning to MySuper, the Government will provide:

  • from 1 June 2012 to 1 July 2017, optional loss relief for mergers of complying superannuation funds on the same terms and conditions as the former temporary loss relief with some exceptions including an optional roll-over for capital gains and appropriate integrity provisions (see Attachment)
  • from 1 July 2013 to 1 July 2017, an optional roll-over and loss relief for capital gains and capital losses on mandatory transfers of default members' benefits and relevant assets to a MySuper product in another complying superannuation fund (24 April 2012) More...

APRA releases response to submissions and draft prudential standards for superannuation
APRA has released its response to submissions on the implementation of prudential standards and draft prudential standards for comment by 20 July 2012.
Third tranche of Stronger Super Reforms released.
The Government has released the next tranche of legislation relating to its Stronger Super reforms. The Exposure Draft is the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Further MySuper and Transparency Measures) Bill 2012. It contains provisions relating to fees, intra fund advice, insurance collection and disclosure of information, default funds in modern awards and EBA's, moving accrued default balances to MySuper, an exception for defined benefit funds and new requirements for ERF's. Submissions must be made by 16 May 2012. More...

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