Treasurer Scott Morrison has again used the media to drop clues about the Coalition’s superannuation ‘life event’ cap exemptions.
The $500,000 lifetime cap on non-concessional super contributions has been a hot button issue for the Government, after it was announced as part of the Coalition’s super reform package in Budget 2016/17.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Mr Morrison announced that divorce would be a life event exempted from the controversial lifetime cap, as well as settlements resulting from accident compensation claims.
“We said before the election … that one of those events was a settlement that might have come from a compensation claim or something of that nature. Other issues in relation to Family Court matters and things like that, the details of that [are] being worked through,” he said. “But you’ve got to get the detail of that right and you’ve got to work it through properly so we don’t create any unintended consequences.”
Mr Morrison also all but ruled out inheritance windfalls and lottery wins as part of these exemptions.
“In relation to inheritances and lottery wins, no, they’re not things being contemplated by the Government and nor have they been,” he said.
The Treasurer denied that exempting divorce settlements from the lifetime cap would encourage couples to separate in order to improve their retirement income, claiming that any such notion is a ” ridiculous suggestion”.
Welfare groups are calling on the Government to stick to the “modest” superannuation reform it took to Election 2016.
Labor has also urged the Government to work out its super reform package in full instead of leaking it to the media piece by piece.
“These sorts of bite-sized announcements … to see how they run in the media is not really a way we can engage properly with the government,” Opposition frontbencher Brendan O’Connor told ABC Radio yesterday.
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What do you think of these exemptions? Would you prefer the Government to finalise its plans for super rather than hearing about it piece by piece? Which exemptions do you think should be included in the Coalition’s superannuation reform package?
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