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The IFPA is calling for a legislative amendment to remove the need for retrospective calculations of tax components for pension interests that fail the minimum standards in a particular income year. In its pre-budget submission to Treasury, the Institute of Financial Professionals Australia said the updated TR 2013/5 included an unexpected amendment, confirming the ATO’s view that where a pension fails to make the minimum payment it ceases only for income tax purposes and mus

Division 296 is a reminder that retirement outcomes are shaped not only by markets and technology, but by policy, a leading auditor said. Naz Randeria, director of Reliance Auditing Services, was responding to a claim by tech billionaire Elon Musk that retirement savings could become irrelevant in an age of AI abundance. “It may sound visionary, but Australia’s superannuation system exists precisely because the future is uncertain, not guaranteed,” Randeria said. Musk stated

Despite popular belief, ATO data confirms that SMSFs are increasingly being used to pay retirement income rather than to build wealth, new analysis shows. The report by financial planner James Hayes, a specialist in superannuation and retirement planning, reveals that SMSFs have firmly shifted into retirement mode with the ATO’s own data showing more money now flowing out of SMSFs than coming in. In his analysis, Hayes found that for the annual cash flow in 2023–24, SMSFs rec