The government will not change existing capital gains tax concessions for the family home “full stop, exclamation mark”, Anthony Albanese says, with the prime minister emphatically ruling out what he called “a bad idea”.
Meanwhile, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said that the government’s proposed change to tax concessions for people with more than $3m in their superannuation accounts, announced yesterday, was “the start of a slippery slope” on tax reform.
On Wednesday the opposition raised the stakes in the super battle, with leader Peter Dutton pledging to repeal it if the Coalition is elected.
“We’re dead against it,” he told reporters in Avalon. “And we will repeal it. We’re not going to stand by and watch Australians attacked.”
Albanese and his treasurer, Jim Chalmers, were taken through a ‘rule-in, rule-out’ list of other tax concessions during a series of morning interviews on Wednesday, following Tuesday’s announcement of the super changes which will take effect from 2025 – after the next election.
Chalmers said the government had “not been focused” on capital gains tax concessions, and it was “not something we have been contemplating”, but Albanese was more definitive.
“We are not, we are not going to impact the family home, full stop exclamation mark,” he told ABC radio RN Breakfast.
“It’s a bad idea because people who save for their home … that they live in with their family, is something that we have no intention, we will not be making any changes there.
“And I have never heard, in all of the meetings that I’ve been to over the years, and I’ve been to a few with the Labor party – cabinet, caucus, branch meetings – I have never heard anyone raise that as a proposition.”
Later addressing reporters in Canberra, Chalmers also ruled out the measure and acknowledged he “should have done the same this morning”.
Capital gains tax concessions for a main residence were worth $48bn in 2022-23 and rental deductions $24.4bn. In 2019-20 taxpayers reported total rental losses of $10.2bn, delivering them a $3.6bn negative gearing tax benefit.
When asked about negative gearing concessions, which independent senator David Pocock has called on the government act on, Albanese said “we are saying what we are doing”.
“We announced what we are doing, we announced exactly what we are doing yesterday and the sort of speculative thing about someone who is an independent raises some issue has no truck with me, whatsoever.”
Asked if it was difficult raising budget reform in this political climate, Albanese agreed.
“Well, certainly it’s difficult when you have the sort of nonsense raised such as, you know, the family home somehow raised as part of this discussion,” he said.
“Not one constituent has ever come up to me and said, ‘I think we should tax the family home’.”
The opposition has used the release of the tax expenditure statement to claim Labor is attempting to put $150bn of taxes “up for grabs”, and attack the government’s credibility.
“If Labor can’t be trusted on superannuation tax, after making that commitment before the last election, how can we trust them on these other taxes as well?” Taylor told the ABC.
“So this is a very slippery slope when Labor starts breaking election commitments that were as clear as that one.”
