The self-employed, trust beneficiaries and women rejig their finances whenever governments tighten the rules on high earners to avoid superannuation taxes, new research shows, suggesting it will happen again with Labor’s latest crackdown.

When the income threshold for paying higher taxes on super under the “Division 293 tax” decreased in 2017, the number of people who had been earning above this mark fell to just below it, the study by the Australian National University found.