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The Treasury Laws Amendment (Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions) Bill 2023 and Superannuation (Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions) Imposition Bill 2023 have been introduced to the House of Representatives on 30 November 2023.

For each income year from 2025-26, the Commissioner of Taxation will calculate a Division 296 tax liability and notify individuals of their tax liability for a given income year.

Division 296 tax will be levied at a rate of 15 per cent on a percentage of the individual’s superannuation earnings equal to the percentage of their TSB above $3 million.

This adjustment will apply prospectively and does not impose a limit on the size of superannuation account balances. 

The Bill is currently before the House and is subject to potential amendments before it passes both houses.

The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Supporting the Transition to Work) Bill 2023 passed both houses of parliament and received royal assent on 28 November 2023.

Under the new legislation:

-    From 1 January 2024 , the temporary enhancements to the Work Bonus that were scheduled to end on 31 December 2023 will be made permanent. Under the permanent enhancements, new pension entrants over Age Pension age and eligible Veterans will have a starting Work Bonus income bank balance of $4,000, and pensioners will retain the current elevated maximum Work Bonus balance limit of $11,800 rather than $7,800.

The Bill also includes provisions to allow eligible Work Bonus recipients on or after 1 July 2024 to receive a ‘top-up’ to their Income Bank to a maximum of $4,000 once every two years in limited circumstances.

-    From 1 July 2024, the employment income nil rate period will be doubled from 12 weeks to 24 weeks, to reduce barriers for income support recipients to take up work by allowing them to retain concession cards and other supplementary benefits for a longer period. This change will apply to recipients of JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY, Parenting Payment, Age Pension, Disability Support Pension and Carer Payment.

To combat against rising levels of identity fraud in Australia, the Government has announced new fraud controls aimed at making it safer for Australians to protect and access their myGov information.

The Minister states that from now on, individuals who use their myGovID to login to their ATO account will need to use that myGovID for future logins. It will not be possible to access an ATO account without it (eg via an email/username and password).

These measures are aimed at countering illicit access of ATO accounts by people using stolen personal information obtained from the dark web.