Treasurer says 'death tax' claims are a scare campaign | ABC NEWS

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Seeking certainty in love and predictability in planning. Any tips on wedding planning? Uh, look, don't let the little details worry you. When the only guarantee in life is death and taxes. My job is to put in place good policies to make a difference for people. Just days after the government clamped down on negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, auction clearance rates in Sydney fell to levels not seen since the start of the pandemic. We are seeing a lot more investors in the Sydney market than Melbourne and probably some pullback early based on on what we saw in the budget. The first post-budget opinion polls published suggesting a slump in support for labor. We've taken some difficult decisions.

[00:00:46]Uh, we've taken a political hit for that. This budget was an absolute stinker. As the opposition gears up for a fight over labor's trio of tax changes and trusts, this is simply a death tax by stealth. From July 2028, the budget includes a new 30% tax on discretionary trusts, including discretionary testamentary trusts. These are set up within a person's will and come into effect after their death and give a trustee the power to decide how and when the income is distributed among beneficiaries. Existing trusts are exempt, but from 2028, new ones will be hit. There are carve-outs. To avoid the new tax, families can use fixed testamentary trusts where the trustee has no say over distributions. Special disability trusts, charitable trusts, and deceased estates also exempt. It's best not to listen to the scare campaigns. Of the estimated million trusts in use, only around 10,000 are the testamentary trusts in question. The Treasurer rejects suggestions his new tax amounts to a death tax, but labor is sensitive to the claims, having faced a similar scare campaign in the lead-up to its shock election loss in 2019.

[00:02:02]Jane Norman, ABC News, Canberra.