Aussie voters back negative gearing and CGT curbs

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By Leith van Onselen

From The Australian comes the latest Newspoll survey, which reveals that a clear majority of voters support reducing tax breaks for housing investors:

The Newspoll found that support for tighter rules on property investors cut across party lines, with 52 per cent of Coalition voters backing the changes compared with 57 per cent of Labor voters and 65 per cent of Greens voters…

The reforms were backed by 56 per cent of voters aged 18 to 34, 50 per cent of voters aged from 35 to 49 and 55 per cent of voters over 50…

The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling has estimated that negative gearing reduces revenue by $3.7bn a year, with the capital gains tax discount sacrificing another $4bn in annual revenue.

Clearly, the Coalition has backed the wrong horse in opposing reform. Unwinding negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount is a no-brainer on both housing affordability and Budget sustainability grounds.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.