Tax certainty for deceased estates

The purpose of the draft regulation is to give effect to the Government's measure, announced in the 2012-13 MYEFO, to provide tax certainty to the beneficiaries of deceased estates.

Investment earnings derived by superannuation funds from assets supporting pensions are exempt from tax. A draft ruling issued by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in 2011 led to some uncertainty over eligibility for this exemption following the death of a member to whom a pension was being paid.

In response to the draft ruling, the Government announced on 22 October 2012 that it will amend the law to allow the pension earnings tax exemption to continue following the death of a pension recipient until the deceased member's benefits have been paid out of the fund. The measure applies to the 2012‑13 and later income years.

Making a Submission

Interested parties are invited to comment on the exposure draft regulation.

While submissions may be lodged electronically or by post, electronic lodgement is preferred. For accessibility reasons, please submit responses sent via email in a Word or RTF format. An additional PDF version may also be submitted.

All information (including name and address details) contained in submissions will be made available to the public on the Treasury website unless you indicate that you would like all or part of your submission to remain in confidence. Automatically generated confidentiality statements in emails do not suffice for this purpose. Respondents who would like part of their submission to remain in confidence should provide this information marked as such in a separate attachment.

Legal requirements, such as those imposed by the Freedom of Information Act 1982, may affect the confidentiality of your submission.

Closing date for submissions: Thursday, 14 February 2013

Address written submissions to:

General Manager
Personal and Retirement Income Division
The Treasury
Langton Crescent
PARKES ACT 2600

Email: superamendments@treasury.gov.au

For enquiries please call Michael Dalton (02) 6263 3713 .

Key Documents

Exposure Draft 122KB 393KB
Explanatory Material 21KB 70KB

Make a Submission

Submit Online

Alternatively submit via post 60KB