The Government has released its response to the final report of The Australia’s Future Tax System Review Panel (the Henry Tax Review).
The key Government proposals include:
- increasing compulsory superannuation from 9 to 12 per cent by 2019: initially there will be two smaller increases of 0.25 per cent, in 2013-14 and 2014-15. These will be followed by steps of 0.5 per cent in every year until the superannuation guarantee reaches 12 per cent in 2019-20.
- raising the super guarantee age limit from 70 to 75
- A staged reduction in company tax from 30 per cent to 29 per cent in 2013/14 and 28 per cent in 2014/15 with small business company tax cut to 28 per cent from 2012-13
Many of the Review’s 138 recommendations were not accepted at this time: some were not discussed at all, others may be implemented in the future but some have been specifically rejected (eg introducing a bequests tax, see full list here).