Advanced Search

Share Coverage



Category: Business, Economics and Finance / Tax / Housing Industry / Federal Government

Most tax concessions end up in hands of those over 30: think-tank

Tuesday, 16 Feb 2016 03:58:40 | Stephen Dziedzic

Glasses and a calculator on accounting documents. (Flickr: teegardin)

A progressive think-tank has released modelling showing the vast bulk of tax concessions go to Australians aged over 30 years of age.

Ben Oquist from the Australia Institute said concessions on negative gearing, superannuation and the capital gains tax discount are worth more than $37 billion a year.

But Australians under 30 receive less than 7 per cent of that, or $2.4 billion in concessions.

"The benefits flow disproportionately to older Australians," Mr Oquist said.

"Young people are missing out, and the problem is growing — superannuation tax concessions, the capital gains discount and negative gearing will soon together cost the budget some $50 billion a year.

"But young people are by and large benefiting very little from those breaks."

The Federal Opposition has proposed that negative gearing be limited to new properties from July 2017.

The Government has heaped scorn on Labor's plan, arguing it will distort the housing market without raising substantial amounts of revenue.

But it has also hinted it may introduce its own changes to negative gearing laws.

Mr Oquist called negative gearing "particularly damaging" for young Australians because it had helped to lock them out of the housing market.

"They're being hit twice, they're not getting any benefit or getting almost no benefit from the tax break, yet the tax break itself is housing them out of the market. It's an inequity in the system that we can't afford," he said.

Mr Oquist said tax concessions like negative gearing had been regarded as politically untouchable for years, but the political debate had evolved very quickly.

"It's interesting because it's been in the political no-go zone for so long," he said.

"But when looking at the data it's clear that the benefits flow to very small numbers of people, and they don't flow to young people.

"When it's realised that the benefits are skewed then the politics can change quickly, and I think we're seeing this not just from the Labor Party but also the Greens and even the Government, who are saying they'll consider the issue."

AustraliaPlus


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend