Australia @aussie.zone cuppaconcrete @aussie.zone 1 yr. ago

Greens decry property tax breaks costing 78 times what Labor proposes to spend on social housing

www.theguardian.com Greens decry property tax breaks costing 78 times what Labor proposes to spend on social housing

Max Chandler-Mather says magnitude of the tax concessions ‘morally reprehensible’ as stoush continues over housing crisis

13 comments

How would you get rid of negative gearing? You couldn't do it instantly, all at once. People have made financial decisions based on it. You could say "no negative gearing on properties purchased after 2023", but then you would still have a huge problem of existing negative gearing. You could phase it out. Limits on how much you can negative gear that reduces every year, going to zero in 20 years.
- It's a funny beast, but I don't know that getting rid of it is the right call. I don't think it'd chage anything much:
  Ms Jones has a house that she leases out to tenants. The interest on the mortgage and costs on the hosue amount to more than she collects in rent. That difference is tax deductible under the status Quo (Negative Gearing). The law changes, and you can no longer negatively gear property.
  
  Ms Jones starts a new company (TotesLegitLandlord inc) and sells her property to this company that she happens to own. This company leases out a house to tenants. The Interest on the business loan and the costs on the house amount to more than the company collects in revenue. The company makes no profits and pays no tax.
  
  Negative Gearing just makes this whole process easier for everyone. Tax returns are easier and the ATO isn't reviewing several thousand small businesses that are leasing out properties at a loss. It's a bogeyman talking point getting us arguing with each other while Billion-dollar companies transfer all their profits off-shore and pay no tax. That's the scandal that we should be marching in the streets over.
  
  I think if the company makes no profit and pays no tax that's fine. The problem people have with negative gearing is that it offsets non investment income. So Ms Jones now pays less income tax on her salary.
  
  That’s why you also need to reform the corporations act to ban corporate ownership of residential real estate.
- Give until the end of the financial year. Negative gearing is a speculative investment, if you’re negative gearing your only residence then more fool you.
Fuck I really hate Labor.

I can’t wait for a left wing party to be in charge of this country again for once.
- Its funny for me being from america. Labor sounds so much like it should be left wing. Although they might be relative to our crazy right leaning everything.
  
  That's because US politics is ridiculously conservative compared to Australian politics. Some have even argued that our major conservative party, the Liberal Party, is actually more left-leaning than your Democratic Party.
  
  Your left wing is WAY more conservative then out right wing… and our right wing is pretty out there

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