After the Productivity Commission Report, here is another damming report into the failure of the Australian Superannuation system, which in my opinion, means it’s time to stop compulsory superannuation

With today being Superman Day, I thought I would put together some of my superannuation tips to put more money in your pocket or your super fund. And you have less than 3 weeks if you want to get the benefit in this tax year.
Some of these tips could put thousands of dollars more in your pocket.

Read on to learn how you can use spouse super splitting to grow your super without penalising your future pension entitlements.

If your spouse’s income is $40,000 or less, you may be eligible to claim a tax offset of up $540 in your tax return for any spouse super contributions you made on your spouse’s behalf. This reduce the amount of income tax you need to pay and could increase your tax refund by as much as $540.

How would you like up to $500 tax free paid into your superannuation fund by the Federal Government? Well maybe you, or someone in your family, qualifies for the Super Co-Contribution.

For a long time I have said that superannuation in Australia is not fit for purpose. And you just have the read the first words in the Key Points section of the Productivity Commission Draft Report “Superannuation: Assessing Efficiency and Competitiveness” released today to see this highlighted again.

Your insurance premium in super is typically dependent upon your age, you gender, your occupation and your smoking status. And if this is set up wrong, you can be paying far too much for insurance.

For years, the superannuation balances of young and low income workers have been inappropriately eroded by unfair fees and charges and unnecessary or inappropriate insurance premiums. In announcing its Protecting Your Super Package, the Federal Government is finally starting to take steps to stop this.

Back in January 2018, I made a submission to the Federal Government in respect of the 2018-19 Federal Budget.
I was pleased to see that one of my submissions regarding regressive super fees was accepted by the Federal Government.

One of the biggest changes announced as part of the Protecting Your Super Package in the 2018-19 Federal Budget is that the ATO will now be tasked to proactively help re-unite Australians with their lost and unclaimed super. Previously, the ATO just sat on their hands, or more correctly sat on the money.

Unlike health insurance where you can move it around, when you close one super fund and open a new one, you need to re-apply for insurance cover. And if your health has deteriorated between setting up your first superfund and moving to the next one, you may not actually be able to be covered.

As at 30 June 2017, there are over 6.3 million lost and unclaimed super accounts with a total value of almost $18 billion. How much of this is yours??