Good news is that this year’s federal budget has little or no impact on Property Investors.
Last year’s budget was very much centred around housing affordability but with the cooling of the Sydney and Melbourne markets this has not really been mentioned in this year’s budget. I suppose this illustrates the Band-Aid approach to politics in so many ways.
However, by reading between the lines and with no negative impact on Property Investors from a taxation perspective we can come to the conclusion that the government recognising the important role that property investors have in supply of tax through Stamp Duty, land tax, Capital Gains tax and for developers GST. They have not altered the current state of negative gearing in order to keep the balance of affordable housing and easing the cost of social housing for the government.
Positives:
The budget has included increased infrastructure spending with an allocation going to road congestion upgrades. They have also extended the tax writes off for another year to help the economy become more robust.
The budget also roles out a plan to reduce tax rates for individuals which will be well received.
Audits for SMSFs will be stretched out to every 3 years for those compliant funds that are following the rules.
One thing investors do need to watch out for is that the intention to not allow a tax deduction for expenses on vacant land. This is targeted at those that have no intention to build an income producing asset on that land. It will be interesting to see how that will be administered.