Australia Institute research has found women and low-income earners are being left behind by a superannuation tax concession system that disproportionately benefits high-income earners and men.

This paper shows superannuation tax concessions help high income earners avoid tax, exacerbate income and gender inequality and come at a huge cost in foregone revenue, and recommends ending or at least limiting superannuation tax concessions for the top 10% of earners and those whose high super balances do not meet the asset criteria for the part pension.

Key findings:

• Super tax concessions cost $54.56 billion in foregone revenue during 2022-23, and disproportionately benefit the wealthy.
• Women retire with a super savings gap of nearly 25% compared with their male counterparts.
• Superannuation tax concessions are forecast to overtake the cost of the age pension in 2045-46.
• Removing the tax concession for both super contributions and earnings from the top 10% of earners would save more than $12 billion every year.