Time pollies joined the rest

Eight months after its May budget announcement, the federal government and the Australian Taxation Office have given no details of how the new 15 per cent surcharge on super contributions on taxpayers earning above $300,000 a year will apply. This is hardly surprising, given the difficulties encountered by the ATO in administering the earlier Coalition surcharge that was abolished in 2005.

The basic problem with administering any surcharge is that many high-income taxpayers are members of defined benefit funds where there is no easily identified employer contribution. In many cases, particularly those of the federal ministers and senior bureaucrats introducing the legislation, their employer benefit is unfunded and is paid as a pension on retirement.

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