<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — Australia\u2019s government has rolled back some of the most contentious elements of a planned tax on large pension balances after its initial plan drew heavy criticism.<\/p>\n
The government had planned to slap an extra 15% levy on profits from pension balances above A$3 million ($2 million). That\u2019s on top of the 15% tax that they \u2014 and most Australian workers \u2014 already typically pay on investment earnings in their superannuation accounts.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s initial plan was slammed by opposition parties and some financial executives, mainly because tax thresholds weren\u2019t indexed to inflation and the levy would capture changes in assets\u2019 value regardless of whether they\u2019re sold within the financial year.<\/p>\n
The changes mean the tax will no longer be applied to unrealized gains, while key thresholds will now increase in line with inflation, according to a statement from Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Monday. Meanwhile, pension balances above A$10 million will now face a 40% levy. The proposed changes will apply from July next year.<\/p>\n
Wealthy Australians Brace for a New Tax on Retirement Savings<\/p>\n
About 90,000 Australians will have more than A$3 million in their pension next year, and about 8,000 will have balances above A$10 million, Chalmers said on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have found another way to deliver on the same objectives,\u201d said Chalmers. \u201cThis means a better deal for low-income workers and also better targeted concessions for the biggest balances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labor first unveiled the pension tax proposal in 2023, promising it wouldn\u2019t become law until after the 2025 election. But after struggling to win enough Senate support, it was shelved. The government is betting that the changes announced Monday will make opposition lawmakers more amenable to passing the reform.<\/p>\n
The government will introduce legislation for the changes \u201cas soon as possible in 2026,\u201d according to the statement.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — Australia\u2019s government has rolled back some of the most contentious elements of a planned tax on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[85540,4056,84,4176,85539,39242,4174,4175,76810,50705,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-196240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-australian-workers","9":"tag-bloomberg","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-initial-plan","13":"tag-jim-chalmers","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-tax-thresholds","17":"tag-the-government","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}