Unpacking the pension reforms

The Government has released for public consultation the second round of exposure draft legislation (and explanatory material) to implement key superannuation measures announced in the 2016-17 Federal Budget. This release of information included:

• The introduction of a $1.6 million transfer balance cap and transitional arrangements for individuals who already have retirement phase balances above $1.6 million;
• Reforming the taxation of concessional contributions (i.e. lower the Division 293 tax income threshold to $250,000 and reduce the concessional contributions cap to $25,000);
• Allowing for catch-up concessional contributions for those with balances less than $500,000 (now effective from 1 July 2018);
• Removal of regulatory barriers to innovation in the creation of retirement income stream products (does not relate to SMSFs);
• Improving the integrity of transition to retirement income streams; and
• Removal of the anti-detriment provision.

I conducted a webinar yesterday to help understand the key measures from this second tranche of reforms, focusing predominantly on the implications of the $1.6m transfer balance cap and integrity measures for TRIS.

You can watch this webinar recording by clicking on the following link:

WATCH WEBINAR

With approximately 300 people who joined me online for this webinar, I’ve had a significant number of questions from the session that will be converted into a Q&A podcast and/or Facebook ‘live’ event in the coming days. If you have a question, please feel free to comment below and I will include this in the podcast and other ‘live’ events.

This blog post was originally published on TheDunnThing blog