Abbott/Liberal Govt Watch

[bennymacca]

My understanding is that capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing are what needs to be addressed. Perhaps you could phase them out over a very long period of time? Or maybe only for new houses in the short term etc

[Q.]

They'd 'grandfather' negative gearing, so it would only apply to new investments

[mighty_tiger_79]

Goodluck with the 'grandfathering' of it....Not against the idea, just don't trust governments to sort it properly

[mighty_tiger_79]

So Turnbull will eclipse Abbott's record in the polls......The Libs will keep him though. Surely they learned from the Labour debacle.

[GWW]

Literally every other Liberal party alternative is less electable than Trunbull (sic).

[cracka]

So what are peoples thoughts on the new citizenship & 457 working visas policies?

[mighty_tiger_79]

I haven't seen the fine print so just going off the media beat up.

Initial thoughts is that its a good thing.

But then hearing another policy that is identical will be introduced, meaning nothing really changes, is disappointing.

[stan]

I haven't seen the fine print so just going off the media beat up.

Initial thoughts is that its a good thing.

But then hearing another policy that is identical will be introduced, meaning nothing really changes, is disappointing.

Yeah it seems like its typical Turnball nothingness. Do something that the people want but not really do anything.

[mighty_tiger_79]

I'm enjoying the Turnbull V Abbott media battle

I'm not sure that Tony has said anything recently, that is leaking, or destabilizing to the Govt, but Malcolm, he just cant help himself and then there is the media who just report on snippets and take a lot of things out of context for their own agenda.

its slighty different to the Gillard V Rudd battle where they both undermined eachother.

[Magellan]

So what are peoples thoughts on the new citizenship & 457 working visas policies?

If nothing else, pure political posturing. Malcolm wants to sounds tough and has decided to take on a 'safe' matter that most rank and file Aussies probably agree with. From what I've read (admittedly not a lot) it seems like there's not a lot a significant revamping on either front.

[shoe boy]

So what are peoples thoughts on the new citizenship & 457 working visas policies?

Turnbull bowing to his far right conservative nuts and One Nation .

[Grenville]

So what are peoples thoughts on the new citizenship & 457 working visas policies?

Peter Dutton trying to explain anything makes a topic more comical. He's an unintentionally funny man.

[Psyber]

My understanding is that capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing are what needs to be addressed. Perhaps you could phase them out over a very long period of time? Or maybe only for new houses in the short term etc

Paul Keating tried that in the late 1980s and had to reverse it. But of course all the media are based in Sydney and never noticed the effect on the rest of the country because it apparently had some positive effect in the Sydney market...

Elsewhere, properety investors bailed out, and it caused a rental property shortage and rapidly rising rents, So people not only couldn't afford to buy but couldn't afford to rent anything decent either whether for residential or business use. Rental contracts for business premises started to include clauses for automatic annual rent rises of "CPI or 10%, whichever is higher".

At the time interest rates were rising dramatically, too, to try to stem the inflationary spiral, and my wife had a small business in Hahndorf that was locked into one of those rental contracts. She could no longer afford staff to help her run itand she had health issues. So, I had to rescue the situation by finding another business that wanted her premises for better exposure and were prepared to take over the lease, then buy a nearby property in the main street, get council consent to run a business from it, and move her business into my premises rent free. Then I sold off her stock, sold the premises, and what I made on the premises now it was a commercial property just covered her net loss.

We then vowed to never run a small business or employ staff ever again.

Mind you, not much has changed in small business. I was talking to my local hardware store proprietor the other day, and he has decided to cut his weekend hours and he and his wife will run it on the weekends themselves. The turning point was a recent Sunday when staff cost them $53 per hour and their total profit on sales for the whole day was less then $50, before they paid the wages.

Declaration of personal interest:
Yes I own a rental property.
I do claim tax deductions for the running costs against the rental income.
It is not negatively geared because the rental income exceeds the maintenance and mortgage payments.
.

[Jimmy_041]

My understanding is that capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing are what needs to be addressed. Perhaps you could phase them out over a very long period of time? Or maybe only for new houses in the short term etc

Let's address the root cause of the problem - Capital Gains Tax

There are no CGT concessions.
What we have is the quite reasonable response to a tax (ie) if you want to tax me, then my costs should be tax deductible.

[bennymacca]

its not an easy problem to solve, and plagued by self interest given how many politicians have rental properties.

and the other week i was asked whether i would accept a fall in my own house price to make the market more accessible to young people, and I dont think I would. So there is my self interest too.

I still think it is unreasonable to expect 100% of the population to have the means to afford a house. But what that number should be is hard. should only the top 50% of earners be able to afford a house? 80%? 30?

No idea

[Jimmy_041]

its not an easy problem to solve, and plagued by self interest given how many politicians have rental properties.

and the other week i was asked whether i would accept a fall in my own house price to make the market more accessible to young people, and I dont think I would. So there is my self interest too.

I still think it is unreasonable to expect 100% of the population to have the means to afford a house. But what that number should be is hard. should only the top 50% of earners be able to afford a house? 80%? 30?

No idea

Whomever is prepared to sacrifice some other part of their life to pay the mortgage(s)

On a different aspect, I think people are ignoring how difficult / hot the rental market is as well.
I hope people realise that once I lose any tax deductions, I will increase the rental rate to compensate
This is a bit like the subsidy for private health. Remove it and the public system will be overwhelmed

[Psyber]

I sometimes wonder whether a flat tax of 10% say on gross earnings with any mucking about with deductible expenses to produce a net income may not be a good idea.

It would:
1. simplify the tax system.
2. Save money on accountancy expenses and for the ATO chasing the dodgers.
3. Take care of negative gearing as an issue.
4. Ensure everybody (or every company) paid tax according to income generated.

Pros and cons??

[RB]

^One of the cons would be a person earning $40k a year paying the same rate of tax as a company earning a profit before tax of $40m.

[Q.]

its not an easy problem to solve, and plagued by self interest given how many politicians have rental properties.

and the other week i was asked whether i would accept a fall in my own house price to make the market more accessible to young people, and I dont think I would. So there is my self interest too.

I still think it is unreasonable to expect 100% of the population to have the means to afford a house. But what that number should be is hard. should only the top 50% of earners be able to afford a house? 80%? 30?

No idea

Whomever is prepared to sacrifice some other part of their life to pay the mortgage(s)

On a different aspect, I think people are ignoring how difficult / hot the rental market is as well.
I hope people realise that once I lose any tax deductions, I will increase the rental rate to compensate
This is a bit like the subsidy for private health. Remove it and the public system will be overwhelmed

You wouldn't lose negative gearing deductions for existing investments. The policy would be grandfathered so only new investments wouldn't be able to be negatively geared. Therefore you wouldn't need to increase rent.

[Q.]

its not an easy problem to solve, and plagued by self interest given how many politicians have rental properties.

and the other week i was asked whether i would accept a fall in my own house price to make the market more accessible to young people, and I dont think I would. So there is my self interest too.

I still think it is unreasonable to expect 100% of the population to have the means to afford a house. But what that number should be is hard. should only the top 50% of earners be able to afford a house? 80%? 30?

No idea

Would you accept a bigger drop in price because the housing market crashed?