Defenders of the Howard-era discount say ‘if you tax something more, you’ll get less of it’. But less investors in the housing market is a good thing
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If pre-budget rumours and press speculation are to be taken with less than the usual grain of salt, the budget which the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will present on the evening of 12 May will contain some genuine, meaningful tax reform. Not nearly as much, to be sure, as Allegra Spender or Mike Baird and Anna Bligh have called for before – but nonetheless, a welcome change from the masterly inactivity which has characterised Australia’s tax system for most of this century thus far.
Specifically, reports indicate that the Albanese government will finally make changes to the excessively generous capital gains tax (CGT) regime introduced by the Howard government in 1999 – as Labor promised it would do if it won the 2016 or 2019 elections, but at which it has since baulked.