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18 September 2025
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The Future Fund's original purpose was to meet the unfunded liabilities of Commonwealth defined benefit schemes. These liabilities have ballooned to an estimated $290 billion and taxpayers continue to be treated like fools.
To negate bracket creep, the thresholds at which marginal tax rates change should be indexed to inflation. Instead, governments legislate ad-hoc tax cuts to address bracket creep and announce them with great fanfare.
Realistically, the Government had to amend the stage 3 tax cuts. The current state of the economy is far different from when the Coalition tabled the tax cuts in 2019, which provided impetus for the changes.
Lifetime annuities will become a more important tool to manage longevity, but they are the only part of our retirement income system where the benefit is determined by an individual’s sex. It's time to change.
Any policy decision needs to recognise who is affected by a change. It pays to check the data on who pays taxes, who owns assets and who earns the income to ensure an equitable and efficient outcome.
Make a note of the lodgement deadlines for personal tax returns, and start collecting the information you will need. Unless your affairs are simple, professional help is usually money well spent.
Labor’s rhetoric of taxing the rich and standing up for women doesn’t match the facts. Their proposed imputation policy, if implemented, will raise little revenue and hurt low- and middle-income widows the most.
Australia could unlock smarter investment and greater equity by reforming housing tax concessions. Rethinking exemptions on the family home could benefit most Australians, especially renters and owners of modest homes.
The creator of the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals, Bill Bengen, has written a new book outlining fresh strategies to outlive your money, including holding fewer stocks in early retirement before increasing allocations.
This AI cycle feels less like a revolution and more like a rerun. Just like fibre in 2000, shale in 2014, and cannabis in 2019, the technology or product is real but the capital cycle will be brutal. Investors beware.
An explosion in low-skilled migration to Australia has depressed wages, killed productivity, and cut rental vacancy rates to near decades-lows. It’s time both sides of politics addressed the issue.
Are franking credits factored into share prices? The data suggests they're probably not, and there are certain types of stocks that offer higher franking credits as well as the prospect for higher returns.
LICs are continuing to struggle with large discounts and frustrated investors are wondering whether it’s worth holding onto them. This explains why the next 6-12 months will be make or break for many LICs.