The events of the last week of the 2013 financial year will no doubt find their way into Australian political history. The Prime Minister elect, returned as Australian Prime Minister this week, executing a stunning party room coup almost three years to the day after being ousted by his former deputy AND less than three months from a general election.
While these events captured the mainstream press, in the background two significant Budget proposals (May 2013) have now been passed and received Royal Assent on 28 June 2013. This change of law requires individuals to review their financial position to take advantage of, or to protect themselves against, the changes.
While these events captured the mainstream press, in the background two significant Budget proposals (May 2013) have now been passed and received Royal Assent on 28 June 2013. This change of law requires individuals to review their financial position to take advantage of, or to protect themselves against, the changes.
These two changes were contained in the Tax and Superannuation Laws Amendment (Increased Concessional Contributions Cap and Other Measures) Bill 2013.
The first change (as reported in the Financial Keys May 2013 Federal Budget update) was the proposal to increase the concessional contributions cap from $25,000 to $35,000 as follows:
As a result, it is important that individuals age 59 years or over on 30 June 2013 urgently review their existing salary sacrifice arrangements to take advantage of this higher contribution cap.
The second change, which was also reported in our Federal Budget update, introduces a new and additional ‘super tax’ of 15% against concessional contributions for those individuals whose income (surcharge income) and concessional contributions exceeded $300,000 p.a.
Broadly speaking Surcharge Income includes:
Therefore, as this law is retrospective in nature, from 1 July 2012, if your grossed up income including concessional contributions exceeds $300,000, you may now be liable to pay the additional 15% tax on some/all of your concessional contributions.
The additional tax can either be paid
As a result of this second law change, it is important that individuals in this salary category urgently review their existing superannuation and related arrangements and consider what options are available to offset the negative impact of this new law.
The June quarter was marked by resilience and recovery in global financial markets, despite a volatile backdrop shaped by shifting trade policies, persistent inflation and geopolitical tensions. After a turbulent start driven by new US tariffs and escalating conflict in the Middle East, markets rebounded strongly as optimism returned on the back of tariff implementation delays and some trade truces, robust corporate earnings and a dose of central bank hope.
As we have reached the end of another financial year, we wanted to send a reminder about income distributions.
The Australian equity market started the year with great gusto with key economic metrics broadly supporting the market. This swiftly turned in February and the local bourse continued to fall throughout the remainder of the quarter. The slide was largely due to the uncertainty over US President Trump's tariffs. Fear and speculation finally became reality as the index began its steep decent in early February, falling circa -10.3%; an official correction and potentially heading towards bear territory and global recession. The Australian market reacted sharply and negatively to the Trump tariffs during the March quarter and overall experienced its steepest losses since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Australian equity market ended the quarter down (-2.8%).