Older people
- see also Assets; Estates; Personal income; Savings
A Single-Tier Pension: what does it really mean?
Institute for Fiscal Studies (July 2013).
From 2016 the existing two part state pension system in the UK is to be replaced by a new single-tier system. The new state pension is expected to be set at around £146 per week; restoring the state pension to the same level of generosity relative to average earnings as it was in the early 1970s. A new report published today by researchers at the IFS, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), examines how the proposed reforms affect different types of individuals and contrasts the short- and long- term effects of the proposed reforms which are found to differ dramatically.
A significant reform of the UK's state pension system is currently being enacted. From 2016-17, the basic state pension and state second pension will be replaced by a new single-tier pension for everyone below the state pension age (SPA). This will bring an end to earnings-related state pension accrual in the UK. This marks the latest step on a long, tortuous and rather circular journey “a journey that started in the early 1970s with a basic state pension worth about £145 a week (in current earnings terms) and that has finally ended up in much the same place. The major difference between the 1974 system and the proposed new system is that the new system will be essentially universal, with considerably more extensive crediting of unpaid activities than was available in 1974.
Reforming Social Security Benefits - House Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Social Security
Eugene Steuerle, Tax Policy Center (May 2013).
Reform of the Social Security benefit structure should proceed on the basis of principles and goals related to adequacy, protections in old age, encouragement of work to protect the tax base on which programs like this depend, and equal justice under the law for those equally situated. Many features of current law violate basic principles of public finance without promoting other worthy goals in an effective or well-targeted manner. In his testimony before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, Gene Steuerle lays out how to go beyond the types of options put forward by many proposals under consideration to achieve such reform.
Exposure draft for Tax Laws Amendment (Sustaining the Superannuation Contribution Concession) Bill 2013
The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia House of Representatives.
The Government has released for public consultation an exposure draft for Tax Laws Amendment (Sustaining the Superannuation Contribution Concession) Bill 2013 and the accompanying explanatory memorandum.
Very high income earners receive a higher superannuation tax concession than average income earners. The changes contained in the Bill will effectively ensure that very high income earners will receive a superannuation concession on their contributions more closely in line with the concession received by average income earners. This will improve the fairness of the taxation of the superannuation system.
Tax Laws Amendment (Sustaining the Superannuation Contribution Concession) Bill 2013 Explanatory Memorandum
The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia House of Representatives.
The Government has released for public consultation an exposure draft for Tax Laws Amendment (Sustaining the Superannuation Contribution Concession) Bill 2013 and the accompanying explanatory memorandum.
Very high income earners receive a higher superannuation tax concession than average income earners. The changes contained in the Bill will effectively ensure that very high income earners will receive a superannuation concession on their contributions more closely in line with the concession received by average income earners. This will improve the fairness of the taxation of the superannuation system.
Super for some: who wins and loses from $30 billion worth of tax concessions for superannuation
The Australia Institute (March 2013).
Australia’s compulsory superannuation system has delivered a large pool of retirement savings and boosted the retirement incomes of many Australians. However, the fact that the superannuation scheme has benefits does not mean that it should not be carefully examined and genuinely reformed.
Fair Share: The Tax Edition
VCOSS (September 2011).
Outlines how tax can change the way disadvantage is caused and addressed, and what changes VCOSS hopes for in the National Tax Forum.
Summary of ACOSS proposals, Henry Review recommendations
Australian Council of Social Service (5 Apr 2011).
This is a brief summary of the Henry Review’s key tax reform proposals and compares them with
those advanced by ACOSS, and the Government’s response.
Progressive Tax Reform: Reform of the Personal Income Tax System
Australian Council of Social Service (November 2009).
This report advocates strengthening the personal income tax system in order to achieve progressive tax reform. It covers topics such as personal income tax rates, consumption taxes, company income taxes, taxation and saving, taxation and the transfer system.
Submission on Retirement Incomes to the Henry Tax Review
Industry Super Network (21 September 2009).
Supplementary submission on retirement incomes to Australia's Future Tax System Review.
The Great Superannuation Tax Concession Rort
David Ingles, Australia Institute (February 2009).
A research paper examining the cost of superannuation tax concessions.
