Kayser Wealth Strategies

Well I certainly didn’t see that coming!

Like a lot of the country I was extremely surprised by the Election results on the weekend.

As such, my planned summary of what we should be expecting to see changed under a new Government has needed to be ‘reworked’ shall we say.

Instead of a long list of changes relating to Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Franking Credits and Superannuation contribution limits, the new reality is that it’ll just be a continuation of what we already have (hopefully without any leadership challenges though…).

The only significant changes (from a tax & superannuation perspective) that are due to come in are:

1. A Tax Offset (reduction in tax) of up to $1,080 for singles or up to $2,160 for dual income families that’ll apply for the current financial year (yes, the year that is about to finish) through to 2021/22. Income earners up to $126,000 in taxable income will benefit from this change.

2. An increase in the ability of small businesses to immediately write off purchases for their business up to the value of $30,000, thereby reducing the cash flow consequences of buying plant and equipment to improve and grow their businesses.

Separate to that there is the last minute announcement of the ‘First Home Buyer Scheme’ that was made just over a week ago, however the details on this are still very thin, so we will need to wait and see what appears.

Other than that, it appears it’s just going to be ‘business as usual’, except probably for the guy at Sportsbet that made the decision to pay out on a Labor victory two days before the vote. I’m guessing he’s looking for a new job by now.

The stock market has been happy with the outcome today. So far it is up 1.5%, with the private health insurers up around 10% (no longer subject to the prospect of tighter controls on premium increases), and banks up around 7% (investors happy to buy them to collect the dividends and claim back their franking credits).

Finally, with all the words and pictures written online in the last 48 hours, I think the below meme perhaps sums up best what Australia has thought:

Chris Bowen

As always, if you have any queries, please feel free to call or email.

Regards

David