Boomers will leave their kids $5.4 trillion. This minister thinks we should give it away instead
To be honest, Andrew Leigh always seemed like a sensible guy to me. Calm, well-read, not a factional warrior of the Labor Party.
Now it turns out he wants me to give him my money.
Not for my children, who are my absolute No. 1 priority, who have been pushed somewhat first by my grandchildren. He wants me to give my money charities. To complete the foreigners. And who knows what they’ll do with it? I also have a pretty clear idea of what the children and grandchildren will do with the money that comes their way. Is there housing?
The good news is that the government will soon make it much easier for you to give your money to causes you think really matter. Productivity Commission gave excellent advice Examining the aid sector in 2024. Leigh says these changes will be implemented as soon as the government lines up the dollars. Hooray! The current system, as the PC report puts it, “creates inefficient, inconsistent and inequitable outcomes.”
Leigh’s move comes amid an endowment cost crisis. There is a reaction in the USA led by billionaires. Members of US billionaire boys’ club are stepping back PledgeIt’s a brilliant and generous initiative dreamed up in 2010 by Warren Buffett and his friends Melinda French Gates and her then-husband Bill. They persuaded rich people to donate half their money to nonprofits. Buffett said: “We’re talking trillions over time… we hope to create a new norm.”
But this new norm is no longer normal as people want it to be Peter Thiel campaign against donations to non-profit organizations. Who knows how nonprofits will spend their money, he asks? Maybe they’ll give it to left-wing causes like anti-poverty, anti-racism, and anti-rape culture. Thiel, you’ll recall, is a raging conservative and the founder of many companies you’d want nothing to do with unless money is your only interest; Palantir Technologies For example. Currently, according to LuckHe tells Elon Musk to stay away from the Giving Pledge. He warned the Tesla founder that his fortune would go to “left-wing nonprofits chosen by Bill Gates.”
Yes, left-wing nonprofits like those trying to eradicate malaria and cervical and anal cancers.
Leigh’s push for more bequests comes as donations are dwindling in Australia. My generation of generous Boomers is now giving less than they used to — or at least less, according to these figures. Australian Taxation Office records. This is partly because our forgiveness now is more urgent. It’s full of love. It is not possible to track this through tax.
We no longer earn income – or as much as we did. Instead, we give our children time and money. Or like QUTs Myles McGregor-Lowndes “When older Australians no longer need to report their employment income, they have no incentive to declare a gift as a tax deduction on their tax returns, so the statistics we have no longer capture all their donations,” he says.
“A will says this: I lived in this community, I benefited from this society, and I want some of those I leave behind to continue doing useful work,” Leigh told certified accountants at a conference Tuesday morning.
All of my children pay taxes and do useful work. Doesn’t that count? I suggest a million ways to raise revenue, like a massive tax on the super-rich, but Leigh isn’t playing. And he flatly rejects my idea of an inheritance tax.
All jokes against Leigh aside, it turns out the government has a target of doubling charitable giving by 2030 (charity reform will be complete by then). Just as we are in the midst of the greatest intergenerational transfer of wealth in our lifetimes, he wants you to step forward. JBWere Heritage Report It is estimated that approximately $150 billion will be transferred through inheritance in Australia in 2024, and $5.4 trillion will change hands in the next 20 years. That’s a lot of money. But while most of these donations are tax-deductible, only a tiny fraction of it goes to nonprofits.
Here comes the good news. It is very difficult to get tax deductible status in this country. A long time ago I made an attempt to achieve what is called. Discounted Gift Recipient (DGR) The status of a group advocating the issue of lethal violence against women.
Nightmare. Every obstacle seemed to be about proving we weren’t political. Friends, everything is political. Everything. Every bit of advocacy is political.
But Leigh says the nightmare may soon be over. Under proposed changes Charities focused on the DGR regime, advocacy and prevention, animal welfare and run entirely by volunteers may soon raise a hand. This means perhaps 20,000 charities may soon receive DGR status. Leigh gives a few examples of things he thinks might appeal to me, including public interest journalism. I wanted to ask him if I could register the grandchildren, but I was met with one of his thoughtful silences. Sigh.
He knows the current system sucks. “The Exempt Gift Recipient system is not the way you would do it if you were starting from scratch,” he says.
Once this reform happens, we can give our money to causes we think are truly important. I don’t think I can claim a tax deduction for my grandchildren, though.
