The Government has released for public consultation the second round of exposure draft legislation and explanatory material to implement a series of superannuation changes:

• Introduce a $1.6 million transfer balance cap and transitional arrangements for individuals who already have retirement phase balances above $1.6 million;
• Reform the taxation of concessional contributions (i.e. lower the Division 293 tax income threshold to $250,000 and reduce the concessional contributions cap to $25,000);
• Allow catch-up concessional contributions for those with balances less than $500,000;
• The removal of tax barriers to the development of new retirement income products by extending the tax exemption on earnings in the retirement phase to products such as deferred lifetime annuities and group self-annuitisation products.

The first tranche of exposure draft legislation was released earlier this month (see here).