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Actuaries Institute criticises constant short-term tax changes

Tax

The Actuaries Institute has argued the government should establish a ‘framework for policy formulation’ to reduce short-term policy changes.

By Staff Reporter 8 minute read

In a submission to the Financial System Inquiry, Actuaries Institute chief executive David Bell said constant short-term change involves a “significant and perhaps unnecessary cost for the industry and consumers to bear”.

Under the Labor government there were 96 superannuation tax changes with 75 changes now expected to be withdrawn under the current government, according to the Actuaries Institute.

Mr Bell also believes a “coherent overarching framework will enable the development of an efficient long-term strategy”.

The Actuaries Institute believes there are a number of challenges facing the current regulatory system.

Some of these include the absence of a formal process for resolving policy differences across different regulators and inappropriate timeframes for managing emerging critical issues.

It also stated there was a “lack of a public lens when assessing the impact and benefits of financial system policy”.

A reactive rather than proactive approach to emerging challenges and “no overarching coordination of policy development related to demographics” were also listed as issues affecting the present system.

The Actuaries Institute suggested the government should also look at establishing a ‘Financial System Policy Commission’ (FSPC) that would recommend comprehensive policy changes for managing the financial system in the long term.

The institute said the current regulatory framework does not work effectively to manage issues affecting multiple regulators or those issues outside all regulator regimes.

The FSPC would resolve this problem and allow for better management of the broader risks to the financial system, it added.

“We are not looking for more regulation, just more efficient regulation,” the Actuaries Institute said.

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