Jason Spits

The federal government has clarified its proposed treatment of testamentary trusts under plans to tax discretionary trusts by restricting the assets that can be included under the former and who can be a beneficiary of those vehicles.

The SMSF Association has welcomed the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) announcement of a performance audit on the ATO’s regulation of the sector. It will mark the first time an activity such as this has been carried out in nearly two decades.

As the federal government considers further reforms to strengthen consumer protections across Australia’s financial services sector, there is a real risk the policy debate is drifting away from where the harm actually occurs. If we are serious about protecting consumers, then we must be equally serious about accurately identifying the source of consumer harm. Poorly targeted reform not only fails to solve the problem, it can also undermine confidence in Australia’s superannuation system.