FSC poll paints Govt as loser on super tax

Efforts by the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers to use the last weeks of the current Parliament to push through the $3 million superannuation tax cap and allied tax on unrealised capital gains is adding to Government’s trust deficit with electors, according to the Financial Services Council (FSC).

The FSC has released the results of recent polling which suggests that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is becoming increasingly distrusted by voters when the issue of the $3 million super tax cap is raised.

Citing the polling conducted by CT Group, FSC chief executive, Blake Briggs said Australians overwhelmingly distrust the Albanese Government on superannuation taxes and are undecided about whether they can trust the opposition.

The poll was commissioned by the FSC and conducted 16 and 31 January.

The polling was commissioned in circumstances where the FSC and its members have been concerned about the Treasurer’s overt push to have the Senate pass the $3 million super tax legislation before the Parliament is prorogued ahead of the Federal Election.

Briggs said Australians do not trust politicians with their superannuation and are particularly unnerved by the Government’s renewed push to increase taxes on their retirement savings in the final weeks of the Parliament.

“Labor’s perseverance in raising taxes is eroding Australians’ trust in the Government on the eve of the federal election.

“Net trust in Labor on superannuation taxes is at negative 18%, and an astonishing 73% of Australians thinking it likely that Labor will introduce further tax changes to superannuation if they are elected at the next federal election.

“The Government’s legislated objective for the superannuation system is to deliver income for a dignified retirement for Australian consumers. The Government’s superannuation tax should be withdrawn in favour of an economy-wide and evidence-based tax review after the next election,” Briggs said.

“The Government’s superannuation tax breaches fundamental tax policy principles, by taxing unrealised gains, and the incidence of the tax will have the greatest impact on young Australians as a result of the deliberate decision not to index the $3 million threshold.”

“Of the 500,000 working Australians who will be impacted by this tax during their lifetime, FSC modelling demonstrates that 400,000 are in their thirties or younger.”

“It is disingenuous to say this tax targets older and wealthier Australians when in reality it targets younger, middle-income Australians, designed to establish what is known as a ‘structural saving’ in the Budget that will be impossible for future governments to unwind,” Briggs said.