Treasurer Joe Hockey has now handed down the federal budget for 2015 and has announced some key changes.

The proposed changes have focused on age pension entitlements (please see the Colonial Budget on pages 6-10 for a very good outline), family tax benefits & childcare rebates (See MLC Budget Outline on page 2 and 3) and incentives for small business in the form of tax cuts and accelerated depreciation for asset purchases up to $20,000 (Please see Macquarie’s Outline on page 2 and 3).

As expected superannuation has remained untouched which is a very welcome development for people in or approaching retirement. An important area for retirees is the proposed changes to the Age Pension which are legislated to become live from 1 January 2017 if passed through the senate. This will have material changes to the age pension entitlements for some clients and will need to be reviewed in the future.

Please contact Critique if you have any queries to the budget changes.

Cheers

Robert