The Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer, Peter Dutton, today announced that regulations have been made to implement a number of the Government’s Simplified Superannuation reforms which will give Australians greater control over their superannuation savings.
“The amendments provide new simplified minimum standards for pensions. The new standards provide the maximum degree of flexibility and choice to individuals while maintaining the integrity of the pension rules.
“For the vast majority of income stream products, the new minimum standards will give retirees greater discretion over the amount of income they can draw from their pension each year. The new rules will also accommodate both account-based and more traditional guaranteed income stream products. Retirees will therefore retain the ability to choose between these two broad product categories,” Mr Dutton said.
“The regulations also give effect to changes to the portability of benefits, including introducing a standard portability form. From 1 July 2007, the maximum timeframe in which a fund has to action a member’s request to transfer benefits will be reduced from 90 to 30 days.
“The regulations also confirm the removal of the requirement for compulsory cashing of superannuation benefits for people over the age of 65 which have been in place since Budget night last year. Retirees now have greater flexibility to draw down their superannuation as and when they want,” Mr Dutton said.
Other amendments include revised rules for the payment of superannuation death benefits, new rules for the acceptance of member contributions made without a tax file number and improvements to the regulation of self managed superannuation funds.
A copy of the regulations can be found on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI) www.comlaw.gov.au or you can follow the link to the regulations from the Simpler Super website http://simplersuper.treasury.gov.au.