Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer and concerns the government's new super tax. If an Australian who owns an asset through his or her superannuation fund receives a tax bill because of an unrealised gain in one year but this asset is subsequently revalued resulting in a loss, will that Australian be eligible for a refund of the tax paid?

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. It's a good question. It's why, when we have announced the policy to ensure that we can maintain the integrity of superannuation and superannuation tax concessions, which are costing the budget in excess of $50 billion a year—more than we spend on Medicare, more than we spend on the NDIS, significant budget expenditure—we put in place a lengthy period for the implementation of it and a lengthy period to ensure that we can consult on some of these details, including details which go to the question that the honourable member has asked about the capacity to bring losses forwards or backwards. We will consult on the specific design implementation of these issues, as any government would and, indeed, as the previous government did when they introduced their $6 billion worth of taxation changes to the superannuation system.