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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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.
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