Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the 2026 budget Tuesday night which seems to be aimed at the top echelon of taxpayers.
But it offered no tax relief for teetering pay as you earn employees and no mention of relief for superannuation weekly payments for employers who are under extreme duress from Labor’s excessive-spending economy and unprecedented high fuel prices.
Housing tax has been overhauled with mum and dad investors probably forced to divest their negatively-geared investments over the next few years which Chalmers thinks will provide another 35,000 homes available for first home buyers.
We asked People First spokesman Gerard Rennick who is well qualified to speak about taxation and budgets. He has a Master of Taxation Law from the University of Sydney, is a Master of Applied Finance and a Certified Practising Accountant.
This is what he said:
“The budget failed to deliver significant income tax cuts to offset bracket creep that is devasting family budgets as a result of high inflation. While I can live with removing the CGT discount, the extra tax revenue from that measure should have been used to offset income tax rather than remove negative gearing. Negative gearing is more effective (I’m not a fan of it because you have to spend a $1 to get 47 cents back) when income tax rates are high. If tax rates were lowered, then negative gearing would be become a more much ineffective tax strategy.
“Immigration is forecast to be 2 million over the next two terms of Parliament which is still too high. Debt levels are forecast to increase which reflects on Chalmers inability to control government spending.”