Accountants Give the 2026 Budget 3 Thumbs Down

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]So, taxpayers and first home buyers are the winners in the Labor's 2026 budget, while rich families could be among the losers. Guys, we've just heard Labor and Chalmers bring out the 2026 budget. I want to ask you guys, starting with you, Tufik, off the bat, what's your initial opinion after watching the budget?

[00:00:18]He's trying to make it fairer. It is correct that it is it is becoming more fair. There's a lot of tax loopholes, you could say, that some of, you know, our wealthier clients we take advantage of. So, I understand what he's trying to do, but I don't have to like it. Yeah, and I ain't going to like it. So, you can see that he's pushing towards more a more fair system. I was saying this to the guys, um my opinion is it seems like Labor has actually released a a budget in favor of workers. So, you know, Labor's been accused for many, many years for not actually protecting workers' rights when they're supported by unions and workers and and Labor. It's in their name. It seems like this time they've actually smashed trusts, investments, negative gearing, capital gains, and they've returned the benefit in some small way to individuals and workers by, you know, giving them a small 250 bucks. But, like I was saying earlier, I think what what's happening here is the budget is taking like people with wealth are going to take a hit on this. People who come to this country or in this country already, right, owning businesses or assets or capitalists, really, are taking a hit.

[00:01:30]And the idea is that's going to create less strain on working class. Whether or not that plays out, I don't know. Pat, what do you think? Yeah, I I completely agree with you. Um I think that was their intention as well to be a bit more fair to the worker. Um I don't mind that aspect of it all. I think there was a little bit of surprises that caught me off guard.

[00:01:51]>> What surprised you in the budget? Uh the 30s 30% minimum tax for trusts. Yeah.

[00:01:57]Yeah, that that was a big surprise and I'm sure we'll talk about it later on. Yeah, they've gone for that 30% thing across the board cuz they did 30% on minimum tax on trust, discretionary trust, 30% minimum on capital gains Yeah. as well. So, you know, we'll talk about what all that means, but uh let's go to you, Mick.

[00:02:14]What was your opinion on on the budget tonight? In in saying that they're trying to limit the tax benefits or maybe the the loopholes that the more wealthy use, I don't necessarily agree.

[00:02:25]I feel like the negative gearing or the capital gains discount are things that people who are from the lower class can take advantage of to actually build wealth.

[00:02:34]Yeah.

[00:02:35]>> And a lot I think a lot of us have used it probably without saying too much about our personal lives, but but a lot of us have used those benefits as well to get an advantage. And I think it's something they're taking away from people to excel and to make that wealth. I heard you saying um you don't like any budget that taxes people more. So, anything with overall tax So, you're not really you know, concerned about who they're taxing more or less. It's not It's not so so much about the split of tax. It's overall are we being taxed more as a country? Yeah, well, that's the I think we're already taxed enough as a country. And if we're taking away certain tax benefits, I don't care taking away from the rich or the poor. If you want to do something for the working class, you want to do something for the people with not as much money, how about you reduce their taxes or um you know, for example, GST is another thing we can talk about about something they should have done. GST threshold's been 75,000 since 2007.

[00:03:28]Uh you want to do something for people who don't earn as much, how about you increase those thresholds, lower the tax rates for those brackets? Yeah. I know they say they want to do something for the working people, but what's what are they doing for the working people? Just taxing Australians more? Yeah. I don't agree. 250 is not going to do much.

[00:03:45]>> All right, we'll come we'll come back to individuals. Let me ask you all starting with Tufic. If I was going to ask you, what's one thing you you liked about the budget? Initial impression, what is it?

[00:03:56]Um moving back to indexation. I hate the 50% discount. I think it doesn't make doesn't make any financial economic sense, and I think it was stupid. Pre-99 we had indexation. We're going back to indexation, and that's actually makes sense. Pay tax on the actual money you make, not let's just take an arbitrary this is your gain from the day you bought it and disregard the elephant in the room being inflation. Okay. So, that I actually liked.

[00:04:22]>> Something you don't like?

[00:04:24]Oh, mate, the the the positive outlook. It was a very very positive outlook um on our economy, on wage growth, and it was actually well above what the RBA has predicted. So, I don't know how the RBA is predicting one set of numbers Yeah. and Treasury today got up, and and all their numbers from infla- inflation was lower, right? Um real wages was higher, all higher than um what the what the what the Treasury says.

[00:04:53]>> Okay, so you're concerned the modeling that Treasury is doing.

[00:04:55]>> Treasury is higher than RBA, so there's an issue with the modeling. Correct.

[00:04:58]>> Treasury's modeling versus RBA modeling.

[00:05:00]>> Correct. They had odds on that and they're working against each other. I've seen that commentary, and I would agree.

[00:05:04]Jumping to you, Pat, something you liked about the budget tonight? The uh the business loss carry back. Yeah. So, we can go back 2 years and claim some tax credits based off tax that we've paid in the past.

[00:05:16]Uh they introduced that during COVID, and it was a good tool especially in COVID because a lot of businesses had some losses, so um I I think that's beneficial for business owners.

[00:05:27]>> and what are you against in the budget?

[00:05:29]Um I don't like the 30% minimum tax on Trusts.

[00:05:33]>> trusts. Yeah. Um I think that's just going to force people to distribute more to their kids. That's fine. We're we're going to we're going to delve that deeper into that. Mick, let me jump over to you to wrap this up, but what's something you liked about the budget tonight?

[00:05:49]Uh like the $1,000 general general expense deduction. Yeah. They they previously announced that one. It's good because with you know, a lot of the tax returns we do most people they work pays for all the all the expenses. So, they don't get to claim an extra $700 than they normally would. Yeah. You know, that's about a few hundred few hundred dollars back they'll get in their their return. So, I like that. Um just to wrap up this segment, I'm going to ask you guys to be put on the spot. I want you to give me just a thumbs up or thumbs down on the budget. What you think? So, uh On three, 1 2 3.

[00:06:21]All right, we got three thumbs down and one thumb thumbs up. So, that's our overall outlook. All right, so we'll jump into the sections, but thanks for that, guys.