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Changes to Australian Superannuation & How It Affects Expats

How The Superannuation Changes Affect Australian Expats

 

Given the recent ATO announcement, in this post we run through how the superannuation changes affect Australian expats for the 2014/15 financial year. There are a number of areas that may affect Australian expats.

Important changes that may affect Australian expats will commence from 1 July 2014 and include:

The concessional cap will increase to $30,000 ($35,000 for those aged 49 or more on 30 June 2014).
• The non-concessional contributions cap will increase to $180,000 (annually) and $540,000 over 3 years (under the ‘bring forward’ rules).
• The low rate cap (for tax on super lump sum withdrawals under age 60) will increase to $185,000.

Australian expats intending to maximise non-concessional contributions to superannuation can consider the strategy of making $150,000 contributions in 2013/14 and $540,000 of contributions after 1 July 2014.  However care should be taken to ensure that the $150,000 cap in this financial year is not accidentally exceeded, triggering the ‘bring forward’ provisions too early.

Increases to the concessional contributions cap and the non-concessional contributions cap from 1 July 2014 are a welcome development.  Expats can consider increasing salary sacrifice arrangements for 2014/15 to take advantage of the newly indexed $30,000 concessional contributions cap ($35,000 for those now aged 49 and above).  Also consequential increases to the non- concessional contributions cap means clients can put more into super.

As always we recommend that you seek professional financial advice by a specialist who not only understands the superannuation legislation but how the financial planning aspects affect Australian expats.

 

Australian expat superannuation

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