Franking credits off policy agenda, Labor reaffirms
As the federal election draws closer, the shadow treasurer has looked to assure voters that Labor will not be taking previous tax policies such as franking credit changes to this election.
Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers has stated that while the Labor government will aim to remove some of the “rorts and waste” implemented by the current government, it will not be adopting the tax increases it proposed in the lead up to the 2019 election.
“We’ve made it clear that those policies around negative gearing and franking credits and the like, they won’t be something that we’ll be taking to the next election,” said Mr Chalmers in a Channel Nine interview this week.
In the lead up to the 2019 election, the Labor Party proposed a range of controversial policy measures to super and tax, including the removal of refunds for excess franking credits, lowering the non-concessional contributions cap, lowering the Division 293 threshold and introducing a pension exemption limit of $75,000 per annum.
Mr Chalmers said Labor would instead focus on ensuring multinational corporations pay their fair share of tax in Australia.
In a press conference this week, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that Labor leader Anthony Albanese has stood for higher taxes throughout his whole career and “that no one should believe him now when he’s promising not a retirees’ tax or a housing tax that he did at the last election in which he was proud and he was pleased of those policies”.
“Labor’s refused to rule out more taxes. We saw that just yesterday from Jim Chalmers when he’s talking about making the tax system fairer. That’s a code word from Labor’s Jim Chalmers for higher taxes,” said Mr Frydenberg.
“He was out there saying that they [were] proud and he was pleased of the retirees’ tax and the housing tax and Labor’s superannuation tax and higher income taxes. That’s their record – higher taxes. That will be a very clear fault line at the next election.”
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
