Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers in ‘internal war’ on Capital Gains Tax discount: Peter Dutton
Peter Dutton says the Prime Minister and Treasurer are waging an ‘internal war’ after Jim Chalmers was forced to rule out touching the Capital Gains Tax exemption on the family home.
Peter Dutton says the Prime Minister and Treasurer are waging an “internal war” after Jim Chalmers was forced to rule out touching the Capital Gains Tax exemption on the family home.
The Treasurer has been asked multiple times since the government announced on Tuesday it would double the concessional tax rate on super balances with $3m or more if he could guarantee he would not touch CGT discounts.
On Seven’s Sunrise program on Wednesday, Dr Chalmers said: “I can say to your viewers that we haven’t been focused on it. We haven’t been working on it. It’s not something that we have been contemplating.
“I can’t commit future governments to changes or otherwise.”
But the Prime Minister was unequivocal on the ABC’s RN Breakfast program when asked to rule out the GCT changing on the family home.
“Yes. We are not. We are not going to impact the family home, full stop, exclamation mark,” Mr Albanese said.
“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 of making any changes there. I have never heard – in all of the meetings that I’ve been to over the years and I’ve been to a few of the Labor Party cabinet, caucus, branch meetings – I’ve never heard anyone raise that as a proposition.”
Asked if he would make the same guarantee as Mr Albanese at his press conference following the release of the latest national accounts, Dr Chalmers said: “I do do that. I should have done that this morning.
“I’m trying to maintain a focus on what we’re doing, not what we’re not doing. I am concerned that having provided in the interests of transparency a sense of all of the tax breaks across the budget, and Treasury’s best assessment of how they’re growing, I don’t want to get into the practice of coming before you each day and working through hundreds of billions of dollars of tax concessions and playing the same rule in rule-out game.
“I should have done that when it came to the family home this morning. And I’m happy to say that.”
Mr Dutton said it was “unbelievable” Dr Chalmers had earlier refused to rule out touching CGT on the family home.
“It’s clearly the case that the Treasurer has a shopping list, a hit list, and most Australian taxpayers are on that hit list,” the Opposition leader said.
“If you look at the family home, the Treasurer this morning refused to rule out Capital Gains Tax on the family home, which is unbelievable. The Treasurer has a different stance it seems on some of these issues than the Prime Minister.
“I don’t know what’s happened with the rushed decision that they’ve made in the last 24 hours, but it seems that there is an internal war going on within the Labor Party at the moment when it comes to taxing Australians.”
Despite the temporary split on CGT exemptions, Mr Albanese and Dr Chalmers will celebrate their birthdays on Thursday and turn 60 and 45 respectively.
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