Are you making the best of your super, for example?

Fortunately, the superannuation industry, itself, has just produced some good advice and a checklist.

It is the work of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.

We are reproducing it  almost in full, below, because it might well be useful to you.

ASFA says: ”….taxpayers need to act now to make the most of initiatives to boost their retirement savings,.

“…there were a number of Government incentives Australians could take advantage of before June 30 to increase their superannuation savings.”

ASFA says these include the Government co-contribution.

“The Government co-contribution scheme is one of the simplest ways for low and middle-income earners to build their super savings to ensure they can afford the lifestyle they desire in retirement,” the association’s chief executive Pauline Vamos, said.

“To get the co-contribution, most employed people will not have to do anything other than make a personal contribution to their superannuation account and lodge their tax return as they normally would.

‘The initiative helps eligible taxpayers boost their retirement savings by the Government matching personal contributions up to $1,000.

Another retirement savings maximiser available to low-income earners is the Low Income Super Contribution (LISC); a super tax refund capped at $500 confirmed in the Federal Budget earlier this month.

“From 1 July 2012, if you earn less than $37,000 a year and your employer makes before-tax super contributions on your behalf, then you can expect a payment made directly to your superannuation account by the Federal Government,” Ms Vamos said.

Incentives are not only offered for those on lower incomes, there are a range of superannuation tax breaks and contribution arrangements to help all Australians save more for their retirement. See ASFA’s end of financial year super checklist for information on how people can get the most out of these incentives.

The checklist

• On less than $61,920 a year?
If you’re a low-income earner, contribute some of your after-tax dollars to your superannuation account to receive a payment from the Government under the co-contribution scheme. For the 2011-12 financial year, after-tax super contributions will be matched at $1 for every $1 contributed up to a maximum co-contribution of $1,000 for those on incomes up to $31,920. The $1,000 limit is reduced by 3.3 cents for each dollar of income over $31,920. The maximum co-contribution phases out at an upper threshold of $61,920.

• Does your spouse earn less than $13,800 a year?
It might be worth considering making an after-tax super contribution up to $3,000 on their behalf so you can receive a tax offset of up to $540 and increase your spouse’s retirement savings. This tax offset does not appear to be as well used as it should be, with only around 16,000 people making a claim in 2009-10.

You can find out more about the superannuation spouse contribution tax offset on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website.

• Have you been making salary sacrifice contributions?
It’s important to remember that salary sacrificed contributions to your super fund form part of your concessional contributions. Concessional contributions are included in the assessable income of your fund and are taxed at 15 per cent. However, there is a cap on the amount of concessional contributions a person can make each income year. If you have contributions to more than one super fund, all contributions will be added together.

Keep in mind that apart from any salary sacrificed contributions, concessional contributions also include:

• your employer’s contributions under the Super Guarantee; and
• any additional contributions your employer makes on your behalf.

If your concessional contributions exceed $25,000 (and you’re aged under 50) you will be subject to additional tax on your contributions. Over 50s also need to be cautious. For the 2011-12 financial year over 50s had a concessional contributions cap of $50,000. However the Federal Budget (8 May) has reduced this in the 2012-13 financial year to $25,000.

It is important that you have a clear idea just how much contributions have been made on your behalf if you are getting close to exceeding your contribution cap. It is also a good idea to make your salary sacrifice contributions and any other contributions at least several weeks before the end of the financial year. Superannuation funds often get a rush of contributions at the last minute and at least some of these may end up being credited to your account in the next financial year.

The ATO website has more information on the contribution caps.

• Likely to receive a bonus from your employer?
You may want to consider salary sacrificing the amount into super rather than receiving it as cash. You can potentially reduce tax on your bonus by up to 31.5 per cent and/or make a larger after-tax investment. If you’d like to take this option, you should speak to your employer and enter into an agreement before the amount becomes payable to ensure you comply with the taxation requirements.

• Have you lost contact with one or more of your super accounts?
There were 2.3 million accounts in unclaimed super held by the ATO in 2010-11, with a closing value of $730 million. If you think one of those accounts might be yours, contact the ATO by calling 132865 (you will need to have your tax file number handy) or use its online search function, SuperSeeker, for any of your accounts that might be listed as lost or unclaimed by the ATO.

The collapse is being described as the biggest superannuation fraud Australia has seen.

Trio’s clients lost an estimated $176 million as a result of the collapse.

More than 6,000 Australians lost money in the collapse.

One of the company’s former directors, Shaun Richards, has been jailed.

But neither the Federal Police nor the Australian Crime Commission are currently investigating the collapse.

The  Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services  said the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) must take some of the blame for the slow response.

It has recommended the AFP and the regulators investigate the fraud as a matter of high priority.

It also says the Government should assist some of the investors.

“…even this surplus is a surplus based on cooked books,” the Opposition Leader told reporters.

“… the Treasurer has artificially moved spending out of next year into this year and into the year after, “ Mr Abbott added.

“… and he’s artificially moved spending off-budget that should be on-budget.

“So, this is a cooked books surplus based on fiddled figures and, yet again, no one should take this government seriously,” the Opposition Leader said.

“…what this government has actually delivered is the four biggest deficits in Australian history,” Mr Abbott said.

That was how the Australian Council of Social Service,  a major welfare group, greeted the Federal budget.

Business was less enthusiastic, with the Australian Industry group saying the government had chosen “short term strategic boost, at the expense of longer term drivers of economic growth.”

Commonwealth public servants were horrified.

“The government’s single minded pursuit of a budget surplus will cost 4,200 jobs and result in reduced public services across Australia,” Nadine Flood, the National Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union said.

In other reactions:-

* The Housing Industry Association said the budget “missed the mark” on housing, as it contained nothing to address weakness in the building sector.

* The chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Peter Anderson, said the budget was ambitious for Commonwealth finances, but lacked vision for the broader economy and

*The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia said making “changes at the edges” to gain revenue for short term political gain” falls short of developing a long term, sustainable, retirement incomes policy.”

The new system, which is to start on July 1 2014, will not affect old people who are already in aged care.

But those wealthy enough to do so, after that date, can expect to pay more for their care.

However, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who made the announcement said people would no longer be forced to sell their homes, to get care, as sometimes happens now.

“All too often, families are forced to sell their home quickly, to raise money for a bond which can be up to $2.6 million,” Ms Gillard said.
“Labor will ensure more people get to keep their family home and no one will be forced into an emergency sale if urgent residential care is required,” she added.
“The system will be fairer, so contributions to the cost of aged care will be based on a person’s capacity to pay.  There will also be annual and lifetime caps on care costs,” Ms Gillard said.

The Prime Minister said the present system  of payments is unfair.

“Average pensioners are subsidising the accommodation and care costs of people earning many times what they do.,” she said.

Ms Gillard said the government had responded to demographic changes, including the facts that Australians are now living longer, and that a bigger proportion of the population will be aged, in future.

The government’s Living Longer, Living Better Package will involve $3.7 billlion in new money.

Much of its cost, though, will be met through re-arrangement of present aged care spending.

The main changes, as announced by Ms Gillard, were:-

* To make it easier for older Australians to stay in their home and receive the care they need, we will double home care packages from $59,876 to almost $100,000.

*We will provide new tailored care packages to people receiving home care, and new funding for dementia care. And we will cap costs, so that full pensioners pay no more than a basic fee, and others have caps as well, depending on their ability to pay.

*We will also make sure that more people get to keep their family home, and prevent the fire sales that I’ve referred to. We’ll do that by providing more choice about how to pay for care, instead of a bond up to $2.6 million, and bearing no resemblance to the actual cost of accommodation, you will be able to pay through a lump sum or a periodic payment, or a combination of both, whatever you choose.

* People will also have longer to make that choice, with a cooling off period introduced, so that they can take up their aged care place, and then think about the best way to pay. And you’ll have longer to pay if you need it, and longer to think about how to do it. There will also be a cap on care costs, with no-one paying more than $25,000 a year, and no-one paying more than $60,000 over a lifetime.

* And because these changes will increase the number of places, people won’t be forced to make sudden decisions under pressure because they’re scared they’ll lose the only place on offer. This means that people won’t be forced into those emergency fire sales.

The Shadow Treasurer said: “government spending on a range of social programs including education, health, housing, subsidized transport, social safety nets and retirement benefits has reached extraordinary levels as a percentage of GDP.”

And he warned that: “an inadequate level of revenue has forced nations into levels of indebtedness that, in an age of slowing growth and ageing population, are simply unsustainable.”

Mr Hockey urged Western countries, including Australia, to look at the Asian alternative.

“The sense of government entitlement in these countries is low,” he said.

“You get what you work for.

“Your tax payments are not excessive and there is an enormous incentive to work harder and earn more if you want to.

“By western standards this highly constrained public safety net may, at times, seem brutal,” Mr Hockey admitted.

“ But it works and it is financially sustainable.

“Contrast this with what we find in Europe, the UK and the USA.

“All of them have enormous entitlement systems spanning education, health, income support, retirement benefits, unemployment benefits and so on,” the Shadow Treasurer said.

Predictably, a delighted Julia Gillard pressed Mr Hockey to say just where a Coalition government would cut welfare and other spending.

A senior colleague, Andrew Robb, quickly said that Mr Hockey had been speaking mainly about Europe.

Tony Abbott was cautious, too, in his response to his Shadow Treasurer’s ideas.

“Well, Joe was making the very obvious point that governments have got to live within their means,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Queensland.

“ Countries have got to live within their means.

“And (Mr Hockey) was making the obvious point that if you look at a country like France, they spend double on social programs as a percentage of GDP than Australia,” Mr Abbott said.

“We haven’t got there yet and it’s the job of the Coalition to ensure that we never do,” he added.

Clearly, though, Mr Hockey is no fan of Oliver Wendell Holmes, the American jurist and poet, who once said: “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.”

Credit card fraud and scams are on the rise..

Personal fraud cost Australians $1.4 billion last financial year.

The Bureau of Statistics reports that more than 660,000 Australians suffered from credit card fraud in that time.

That is 3.7 per cent of the population  aged 15 or over.

Only 2.4 per cent of Australians had been victims of credit card fraud in 2007.

The Bureau also reported that 1.2 million Australians had fallen victim to at least one case of personal fraud last financial year.

That represented 6.7 per cent of the population, a rise from 5 per cent in 2007.

The Bureau’s survey also showed that three in five victims of personal fraud lost money.

The costs were high.

The Bureau put it at an average of $2,000 each.

Good news was scarce, in the survey results.

But there was some.

Identity theft fell.

Even so, the Bureau said  44,700 Australians had suffered from it, last financial year.

That was 0.3 per cent of the population, down from 0.8 per cent in 2007.

Yet a study, just completed, suggests that most of the professional advice, available in Australia, is “adequate” at best.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which conducted the survey, concludes that the industry has room for improvement.

ASIC Commissioner Peter Kell said: “The results of ASIC’s shadow shopping research demonstrate that there is scope for significant improvement in the provision of good quality retirement advice in Australia.

“Our research found there are several areas where the financial advice industry needs to lift its game,” Mr Kell added.

ASIC’s research found that:

*      over a third of the advice examples were poor (39%)

*     there were only two examples of good quality advice (3%)

*      the majority of advice examples reviewed (58%) were adequate.
“Advisers are important gatekeepers who have a key role to play in helping consumers plan and manage their finances,” Mr Kell said.

“ This underlines the importance for the industry to remove conflicts of interest and improve overall professional standards to ensure that their client’s trust is not misplaced, “ he added. he said.

ASIC said said financial advisers need to provide realistic and client focused advice.

This should include discussion of people’s retirement prospects, including how long their money will last.

It said this topic should be fully discussed,”even if this can on occasion be a challenging conversation.”

“‘Too much poor advice provided to our shadow shoppers was overly product focused and not strategic enough to help clients develop a realistic and achievable plan for their retirement,” Mr Kell said.

He said people planning for retirement need to make the most of their financial resources, given their resources, and likely risks,

Want more information?

That’s available at moneysmart.gov.au.

So how can you protect yourself against it?

The Australian Crime Commission which produced those staggering estimates, also gives some pointers on staying safe.

The Commission says  that organised criminal networks are always on the lookout for profits.

It warns, too, that they “are flexible, innovative and resilient.”

Your security should be, too.

Our political leaders are trying to do their part.

As evidence, the Commission points out that Australian laws have been changed to:

- introduce new criminal offences targeting those involved in organised crime

- strengthening criminal asset confiscation and anti-money laundering provisions

- requiring people who have unexplained wealth to demonstrate that it was legally acquired

-enhancing money laundering, bribery and drug importation offences

- broadening access to telecommunications interception for the investigation of organised crime offences, and

-providing protection for undercover law enforcement officers who infiltrate criminal organisations.

The authorities have also spelt out their priorities for fighting organised crime.

These include targeting the production and sale of amphetamines, money laundering and identity crime.

Nothing, though, works as well as the precautions you can take yourself.

These should include:-

-           Locking all personal documents in a safe container when you are not using them

-           Keeping copies of key documents in a secure place.

-           Carrying only essential information

-           Destroying any personal information before you put it in a bin and

-            Using strong passwords on your accounts.