Federal Budget- Key retirement and financial planning related items

Andrew from Vista Financial · May 13, 2014

Overnight, the Federal Government handed down its annual budget.

It contained the following key points related to retirement planning:

further increasing Age Pension age to 70 by 1 July 2035
indexing pensions to CPI, rather than wages, from 1 September 2017
resetting deeming thresholds to $30,000 for singles and $50,000 for couples from 20 September 2017
freezing Income and Assets Test thresholds for Government pensions including Age and Service Pensions from 1 July 2017
including untaxed superannuation income in the Income Test for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card for new recipients from 1 January 2015.

Other significant financial planning-related items were:

introducing a 2% Temporary Budget Repair Levy on incomes over $180,000 for three years from 2014-2015
maintaining SG contributions at 9.5% for three years from 1 July 2014
allowing individuals to withdraw contributions in excess of the non-concessional contributions cap from 1 July 2014
tightening the eligibility for Family Tax benefits.

Other items were:

Abolition of Mature Age Worker Tax Offset
Abolition of Dependent Spouse Tax Offset
Increasing the Medicare levy low-income threshold for families
Seniors Supplement abolished
Disability Support Pension changes regarding recipients time spent out of Australia
First Home Saver Accounts to be abolished
Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) reduction to income threshold

Edited May 13, 2014 by Andrew from Vista Financial

May 13, 2014

Thanks for the information Andrew.

May 14, 2014

I don't understand all the terminology around this, but is there anything good there?

Andrew from Vista Financial · May 14, 2014

I don't understand all the terminology around this, but is there anything good there?

Not really for individuals as far as I can see.

A bit of a bonus for business owners though with a 1.5% tax cut.

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