Legislation and taxation: What were advisers worried about in Q1 2025?

Among the 2,000 queries fielded by BT each quarter, the firm noted that the most common topics raised by advisers in the January to March 2025 quarter were in regard to legislation and taxation changes.

Starting with legislation that has already commenced, the firm reported receiving a considerable number of questions from advisers regarding the new consent arrangements that came in on 10 January 2025.

“Whilst the new consent arrangements started on 10 January 2025, it is important to remember that any existing arrangements with an anniversary date before 10 January still need to comply with the existing rules; and this remains the case, even if the relevant consent period extended beyond 10 January,” BT head of financial literacy and advocacy Bryan Ashenden said.

“This includes the need to provide a client with a fee disclosure statement and the fee consent renewal notice within 60 days of the anniversary date.”

With the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms ongoing, Ashenden suggested that advisers will likely continue to raise concerns around these changes in the future.

As 1 July – the government’s unofficial favourite date to commence legislation – approaches, BT said advisers also voiced concerns around the contentious Division 296 super tax set to come in with the new financial year.

Part of this confusion stems from the fact that, despite being a month out from the proposed start date for these changes, the legislation is still yet to be passed through Parliament.

Given that Labor went into the election with this legislation, Ashenden said it seems a fair expectation that they plan to go ahead with it, even with the significant pushback of late, and nothing they have said since has suggested otherwise.

The new financial year will also see general transfer balance caps (GTBC) and total superannuation balance (TSB) threshold indexed by $100,000, lifting it from $1.9 million to $2 million.

With the start date quickly approaching, BT said advisers have been raising concerns about how exactly this will impact clients and their retirement income planning.

Touching on this, BT technical consultant Tim Howard said there are a number of things for advisers who are unsure about navigating this to remember.

“The important thing to remember with indexation, is for anyone who has already maximised their personal transfer balance cap, they will not gain any benefit from the indexation,” Howard said.

“Those who have already commenced a retirement phase pension account but have not fully utilised their personal transfer balance cap, will benefit from partial indexation, whilst those who have not had an amount previously assessed to their transfer balance account will gain the full indexation benefit.”

For advisers who are also business owners, BT also offered a timely reminder that 1 July 2025 will see the super guarantee (SG) increase from 11.5 per cent to 12 per cent.

Meanwhile, Labor’s success at the election means that the promised income tax reductions are set to go ahead from 1 July 2026, which will see lower income earners receive a larger take-home pay.

Although advice clients typically have a higher income, BT said it’s important for advisers to consider how changes to the tax rate and their pay will impact clients’ super contributions.