Labor’s plan for a new tax on superannuation accounts with high balances has attracted loud criticism for upending the fundamentals of the tax system.

Everyone, from venture capitalists to farmers, have identified flaws that, at the very least, reveal what might be unintended consequences of a tax that targets both unrealised gains and is not indexed, meaning it has all the weaknesses of the bracket creep-plagued income tax system.

writes about personal finance from our Sydney newsroom. She has been a business journalist for 25 years and is the author of Money Queens: Rule your Money, an award-winning personal finance book for teenage girls.

covers self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), financial planning, retirement, inheritance, tax, personal finance and, sometimes, the Perth Bears. He has been a financial journalist for 30 years, previously at Bloomberg and AAP.