Coalition vows to repeal Labor’s ‘toxic’ negative gearing and capital gains tax budget reforms | Liberal party
The coalition has vowed to repeal Labor’s proposed changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax if they come to power, and has launched a major battle over key tax reform measures to be included in the budget before the next election.
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson and opposition leader Angus Taylor have vowed to fight the proposals in parliament in coming weeks, saying a future Coalition government would reintroduce more generous rules for property investors and minimize taxes for Australians through trusts.
Taylor said the Coalition would support a new tax cut of just $250 for workers and new hospital funding would be announced on Tuesday night.
“Absolutely our position is that we will do everything we can to stop these bad taxes, poisonous taxes, from getting through parliament,” he told Sky on Wednesday.
“We will do whatever it takes to get these taxes back.”
The coalition’s repeal plan would leave the budget about $70 billion worse off and require additional savings or revenue measures to close the gap.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jim Chalmers used his budget on Tuesday night to deliver on Labor’s election promises on tax reform; announced the end of negative guidance on new investment properties and reduced the capital gains tax deduction by 50%.
Investment properties purchased after Tuesday night will no longer be able to be negatively charged and the CGT relief will be available until 1 July 2027.
Wilson said the Coalition would seek to defeat the changes aimed at property investors, adding: “We will repeal these measures if necessary.
“But when it comes to broken trust measures that this government has built on bad faith and will bring young Australians to their knees, let’s be very clear about how bad this is.”
The next election in mid-2028 will coincide with all the changes coming into force.
Taylor initially left open the question of negative gearing and the repeal of changes to capital gains tax, telling the ABC on Wednesday morning: “Let’s see.
“Let’s see, because if you take small business taxes, for example, they’re saying they’re going to do a review because they realize they’re getting a lot of criticism.
“They will be reviewing their own capital gains tax measures, again there will be a lot of criticism around investors, particularly small business and growth investors.
“So we don’t even know what the final form of this will be. What I do know is that we are absolutely opposed to these increases and we will fight them.”
Greens leader Larissa Waters said her party would bargain hard with Labor and demand more details from the government before committing to passing the measures through parliament.
He told Guardian Australia that the changes to property investment were little more than “tweaking the edges” and that close to 95% of the benefits of the current rules would remain the same.
Asked if the Greens would halt progress on their budget appropriations bill, Waters said the party needed more detail on key provisions.
“I think the government had a choice about who they would work for and who they would serve. They chose the big corporations and the 1%, they didn’t choose the people,” he said.
He called for the $250 tax break, which the government calls the “working Australians tax cut”, to be given to about 4 million low-income people and benefit recipients whose incomes are below the tax-free threshold.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the payment, which will come into force from the end of the next financial year, will not be extended.
He said the offset was designed to “benefit people who actually work.”
“If they fall below the tax-free threshold, by definition they’re not paying taxes in full. So it’s quite difficult to provide tax breaks to people who don’t pay taxes.”
