SMSF Association congratulates new Ministers

The SMSF Association is looking forward to a constructive relationship with the incoming Labor Government and is hopeful that two of the outstanding measures from the 2021 Federal Budget – changes to residency rules and legacy pensions – will be legislated.

SMSF Association CEO John Maroney says: “We congratulate the Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, on their appointments and look forward to working with them on issues relevant to the self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) sector.

“Both Ministers paid us the courtesy of addressing our National Conference held in Adelaide in April, and we have extended an invitation for them to address our inaugural Technical Summit being held on the Gold Coast in July.

 “In our experience they have always been willing to listen to the issues affecting the SMSF sector. We are confident they will appreciate the importance of these two measures and we seek their support to pass the legislation through Parliament.”

Reforms to the residency rules for SMSFs will see the existing two-year safe harbour exemption under the central management and control test extended to five years, while an amnesty period for SMSF members stuck in legacy pensions will give them the opportunity to convert to more contemporary style pension products.

Maroney says Stephen Jones had previously flagged that Labor would examine ways of giving financial advisers better access to client superannuation information from the MyGov ATO portal.
“We appreciate this initiative, knowing that it will benefit many of our members providing support to their clients.”