Coalition’s negative gearing tweak to slug demand

By Leith van Onselen

One of the worthwhile and unexpected ‘housing affordability’ measures to come out of last week’s Federal Budget was the minor adjustments to negative gearing, namely limiting plant and equipment deductions to actual outlays incurred and disallowing property investors from claiming travel expenses relating to their property. These Budget measures are presented below:

As shown above, these negative gearing tweaks are forecast to save taxpayers some $800 million over the forward estimates period – a small win in the era of Budget deficits.