| Centrelink New Gifting Rules |
| Recently Centrelink changed the rules on gifting, preventing recipients benefiting from what it considers to be excessive gifts. |
The old rules allowed single pensioners and pensioner couples to give away up to $10,000 worth of cash or other assets per pension year without penalty.
The pension year was a 12-month period from the anniversary of the date the pension was granted.
Gifts in excess of the annual limit continued to be assessed as an asset for 5 years and were subject to the deemed income rules.
From 1st July 2002 single pensioners and pensioner couples can still gift up to $10,000 per year. However, there is now a limit of $30,000 in any rolling 5-year period, and the measurement of a year is now the financial year ending 30 June.
7th-June-2003 |
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