People often grasp our message through simple examples. Imagine a friend buys one of these pictured beach boxes for $12,000 in 1994. Meanwhile, you work hard, doing overtime, saving money, being a solid citizen.
During the middle of Victoria’s worst day on record (last Saturday reached 46 degrees celcius) your friend decides to sell his beachbox. It’s just a wooden box on crown land. However, it is situated in an exclusive location.
He sells it for $171,000!
This results in a staggering $149,000 gross profit. Over a few drinks that night he tells you “My accountant can do backflips through this tax system! I pay only 12% in capital gains tax, so this bottle of Dom Perignon is just a drop in the ocean compared to the windfall profit of $120,000 I just ‘made’.”
You look deep into your glass as you total up your hard earned savings of barely $20,000.
Natalie Craig reports that this is what happened last weekend. A property speculator made more profit than two hard working aussie battlers on average wages do in a year – just by shuffling paper. This is what our tax system prefers. Buying and selling rather than hard work and saving.
Will governments and the loose tax policy that benefits speculators be put under the spotlight? Will this tax policy be held responsible for it’s role in drowning the global economy in the GFC? Or will they allow banks to take the hit for them? Let’s get to the source of the problem before many more bailouts occur.
We yearn for the day when people can look after themselves due to the cheap access to land and a simplified tax system. Then any creative person can quickly make their contribution to society. The $120,000 windfall profit should see the vast majority of it going to the government to fund the abolition of damaging taxes like payroll, GST and income tax. By charging a 10% Site Rental on all land we can quickly ensure this happens.
