ABC has a suggestion for a surplus . . . . . Axe Negative Gearing

October 24, 2012 admin Negative Gearing 19

After Monday’s MYEFO, the ABC suggests the Federal Government could save $5 billion a year with a single chop.

Watch the video segment, Suggestion for a surplus, on The Business here.




19 Comments

  1. Negative gearing is just a rort. Lets get rid of rorts and distortions in our economy so it works better. Remove it I say! Be gone with it!

  2. So 1.7 million people potentially benefit from negative gearing which seems to be a 3-5 billion dollar taxpayer handout if the sources are in anyway correct. Investors construct new homes 10% of the time whilst 90% of the time they serve to compete with others for existing homes.
    On top of this, taxpayers give additional money to first home buyers in order to prop up the housing market. The Queensland government was quite open about the obvious motive for giving taxpayers dollars to first home buyers.
    This ain’t rocket science and nobody likes having their handouts taken away from them.

  4. Absolutely agree, either cut it altogether or at least put strict limits on it, like for example one property per household and only to a max $$$ amount of say $1K per year. I know quite a few people with 6+ houses that probably effectively pay very little tax. This is where the system is flawed and needs to be reformed.

  6. I have no problem with negative gearing benefits for people who BUILD HOUSES and for a fixed period.

    E.g. first 7 years for a brand new house.

    To say that me buying a 700,000 80 year old terrace in the inner west is contributing to the housing supply is absurd and does nothing to contribute to the concept meeting its intentions of providing housing.

  7. But if they get rid of it, won’t they just come up with some other new policy to keep the rich happy? Contrary to millennia of propaganda, money can buy a lot more than what we are led to believe.

  8. Does anyone know what is the government opinion about implementing a land tax? The idea was discussed by the documentary real estate for ransom but did not hear much more of it after that.

  9. @ Urban Hermit

    What can we do to get rid of Negative Gearing?

    Read Phillip Soos “Bubbling Over”. Start educating your peers and friends. Lets kill thiis NG meme and stamp on it every time it pops up.

    I think its also important that we use the public interest via the media to get people interested and tackle it from the quintessential notion of “A fair go!”.

    We need to form a cohesive and politically palatable package for the withdrawl of NG over time, mindful of the various “stakeholders” who would seek to maintain the status quo.

  10. What can we do collectively to get rid of negative gearing ?

    Get creative as to where/how you live, and don’t pay rent.
    Don’t reward the parasites.

    Infact a strategically located ‘tent city’ would do much to shame society for what it has done.
    Maybe a revolving location ‘protest’. There are entire floors in bank skyscrapers empty, if someone knew squatting laws.
    Forget wikileaks, squattyleaks could become a movement in itself.

  11. @HousingTroll – Absolutely, and as soon as we all outnumber the NG stakeholders, democracy ‘should’ work its magic. Most of my friends don’t even know what NG is, and when I tell them, they pretty soon decide that they’ll vote for whoever says they’ll abolish it. Greens anyone?

    @JJ – Having recently been witness to the rioting, the squatting and the tent cities in London and New York, I can tell you that governments can rush through legislation empowering the police even more. It raises public awareness, sure, but you’ve got to have a lot of balls to ‘break the law’. Police state anyone?

    @Trev – It was a great documentary, but like most common sense anti-government, anti-wealth ‘propaganda’, it has been buried by the mainstream media. Do you ever see Steve Keen on TV? Do you ever see Greens or Independents having their say on TV? Stalinist Russia anyone?

  13. The only problem with getting rid of negative gearing will be that the landlords will pass it onto the renters. Rents will go up for those properties, but then the renters must stick to their guns and find a rental property that has a market rate rental. If that happens kaboom property bubble goes bang.

  14. But if they remove negative gearing and property prices drop wont that drag rents down with it ?

  15. It’ll never happen. The Government relies too much on votes from the scum who receive it.
    I for one am sick to death of having my tax dollars wasted on:

    – Negative gearing
    – Baby bonuses
    – School assistance

    and the like for people who then walk around like they are “in the know” and are big successes in life without actually having contributed to society at all. They are nothing but glorified dole bludgers in a country that has become one gigantic welfare State for the average greed ridden suburban types to mining corporations that receive $64 million tax payer dollars to upgrade their machinery “because they need to compete with the rest of the world”.

  16. That’s why NG needs to be scaled back in stages.

    This concept is to hard for the general public and politicians to understand so in the end nothing gets done and house prices and rents remain unafforadable.

    Well done Australia.

  17. Look everyone, just vote for the candidate who wants to abolish NG – or run for office yourself with that as your main or only policy. Encourage your friends to do the same. Pretty soon you will gauge the electorate’s understanding and attitude towards it.

    If you want changes in government policy, then DO something about it! Apathy and moaning from the sidelines is useless. Please don’t give up and say “it’ll never happen” because “the government relies too much on votes from those who receive it” (sic) – governments change, and WE can change them. We weren’t living in a dictatorship the last time I looked.

    Come on Australia – get politically active!

  18. NG just needs to be made more public its surprising how many people dont know about it. It’s almost a taboo subject.

  19. How about we apply similar restrictions to negative gearing that we apply to capital gains from shares?
    So you can claim losses from your rental property, but only against capital gain income FROM PROPERTY.

    The people who deserve negative gearing – people in the business of property construction – won’t be affected.
    The elderly/retired won’t be affected.

    So your ‘investment’ property lost $10K this year?
    Go invest in new housing and make $10K.

    You need a tax write off for you $150K income?
    Go invest in a business.

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