The Personal Income Tax Plan announced as part of this year’s Federal Budget has been passed by Parliament.
The plan introduces:
– a new low and middle-income tax offset to reduce the tax payable by low and middle-income earners in the 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 income years
– a new low-income tax offset from the 2022-23 income year
– changes to income tax rate thresholds in the 2018-19, 2022-2023 and 2024-2025 income years
Income tax rate thresholds for the relevant income years are as follows:
2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 income years: Increase the top threshold of the 32.5 per cent tax bracket from $87,000 to $90,000.
2022-23 and 2023-24 income years: Increase the top threshold of the 19 per cent tax bracket from $37,000 to $41,000. Increase the top threshold of the 32.5 per cent bracket from $90,000 to $120,000.
2024-25 income year onwards: Increase the top threshold of the 32.5 per cent tax bracket from $120,000 to $200,000.
Whether you are a newcomer to the workforce or have been working full time for 30 years, you must have come across the concept of superannuation. Chances are, you’ve already been steadily building your retirement funds in one of the 500 Australian superannuation funds but are still unfamiliar with how exactly your super is being managed and where your super fund is investing your money in.
With the beginning of a new decade and social issues on the rise, it is time to take a more conscious stance on what you are doing with your super and what causes you are supporting through the employment of your money through your super fund.
A recent investigation into Australian super funds by the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), released in February 2020, found that 50 of the largest super funds in Australia are proxy voting against local climate-change initiatives. These organisations are instead approaching climate change from a global perspective, whilst ignoring more pressing domestic challenges to reduce carbon emissions..
The lack of support from Australian super funds for localised climate action is growing problematic, as Australia fails to address its appalling record on carbon emissions and is falling behind new-age global goals to fight against environmental degradation and climate change.
In contrast, some of Australia’s most environmentally and socially conscious super funds lack the reputation to attract long-term users. To look for more environmentally friendly Australian super funds, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) grades supers based on their ethical contributions and makes this information available to the public.
Instead of mindlessly joining Australian super funds that are neglecting growingly problematic domestic climate change issues, Australians need to become more conscious of our indirect actions and super investments. Rather than investing in an unethical super fund, looking into self-managed super funds may be another good option. We need to learn to take matters into our own hands and become more socially conscious of where exactly our money goes.
