The Treasury Laws Amendment (2022 Measures No 2) Bill 2022, through which the downsizer contribution qualification age will be lowered from 60 to 55, was read for a third time in the House of Representatives close to a fortnight ago.
“This means it has been passed into the Senate today [27 September]. So assuming the Senate gets to work and it actually looks at the bill and reads it, it will come into play in the first quarter after royal assent is received,” Heffron senior SMSF technical specialist Annie Dawson told attendees at the SMSF Auditors Association of Australia SMSF Conference 2022 on the Gold Coast.
“So if that happens to happen by Friday this week, then from next week your downsizer [qualification] age will drop to 55.”
If the bill does not receive royal assent within this timeframe, the reduction to the downsizer qualification age will not come into play until January 2023, Dawson noted.
With regard to the actual passing of the bill, she said the industry was expecting it would happen very smoothly.
“We’re expecting it to go through because both [political] parties agreed to it as part of their pre-election promises,” she said.
She pointed out there was still one critical element the industry has yet to see regarding this measure.
“We don’t have draft SIS (Superannuation Industry (Supervision)) Regulations yet as well. So presumably if [the bill] gets legislated this week, the regulations will get backdated [to reflect that timing]. But we haven’t seen those yet,” she said.
She reminded practitioners in order to make a downsizer contribution the proceeds from the sale of the property must be exempt or partially exempt from capital gains tax under the main residence exemption.
The bill to lower the downsizer qualification age was first introduced to parliament in August.
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