The Government’s 1 July 2017 tax changes caused Transition to Retirement Income Streams (TRIS) to fall out of favour with many advisers and their clients.

With the Federal election looming, the Australian Labor Party’s policy to prevent many taxpayers from receiving a refund for their franking credits has certainly become a dominant issue for many retirees, particularly those with SMSFs.

And they’re off! The long-awaited election campaign is now finally in full swing and babies are being kissed, working families praised and the nightly news shows too many politicians.

The Government has announced that they will not proceed with their plan to increase the maximum number of members of SMSFs and small APRA funds from four to six.

On the superannuation front (and for SMSFs in particular), the 2019-20 Federal Budget was distinctly quiet.

If the four short paragraphs about ECPI had been included in the 2016-17 Federal Budget, the Government could have saved actuaries and software providers hundreds of thousands of dollars in software development costs.

The 2019-20 Federal Budget confirmed the changes to contribution rules announced in the Treasurer’s Press Release on 1 April.

In addition to the Government’s proposed changes to the contribution rules for older Australians and also exempt current pension income, they’ve proposed a couple of miscellaneous amendments.

All SMSFs trustees are required to appoint an approved auditor to audit the operations of their fund each year. This annual audit must include both a financial audit and compliance audit.

In the final week of Parliament, there were a number of superannuation related measures still to be passed into law.

As part of the 2018/19 Federal Budget announcements, the Government confirmed that they intend to legislate to increase the maximum number of members that can belong to a single SMSF from four to six.

In the May 2018 Federal Budget, the Government announced plans to extend the ability for recent retires to make contributions to superannuation from 1 July 2019. This change has now been legislated.