GetUp!: Super for Some

Unlike most areas of government spending, the benefits of tax concessions to superannuation flow overwhelmingly to high income earners with many low income earners receiving literally zero benefit from this largest of government expenses.

According to modelling by the Commonwealth Treasury the wealthiest ten per cent of the population are expected to receive 31.8 per cent of the tax concessions on superannuation contributions in 2012-13. The same Treasury modelling shows that the poorest ten per cent will receive no benefit from those tax concessions and the bottom half of the population will receive 18.7 per cent of the concessions on contributions.

Those with the lowest incomes and those who spend time caring for their children or family members receive virtually nothing from the enormous cost of concessionally taxing contributions to superannuation.

• The 646,000 people who make up the top five per cent of the income distribution received superannuation tax concessions worth $7.1 billion. This is more than the $6.5 billion received by the 6.4 million people who make up the bottom 50 per cent of the income distribution3.
• The 129,000 people who make up the top one per cent of the income distribution received $2.1 billion in tax concessions for superannuation, an amount almost as large as the $2.5 billion shared between the 3.8 million people who make up the bottom 30 per cent of the income distribution4.

Put another way, those in the bottom half of the income distribution receive an annual average retirement saving contribution from the taxpayer of around $1,000 while those in the top five per cent get around $11,000 each and those in the top one per cent get around $16,000 per year in taxpayer support for their retirement.