AusFinance

The Federal Court has knocked back a claim from an ABC radio presenter who entered $6000 in home rent as an expense.

Archive/non-paywall link.

Australia's entire economy is built on housing, and operates on a "myth" that we can keep generating wealth by constantly inflating housing prices, argues the head of Australia's largest super fund.

Paul Schroder, the chief executive of AustralianSuper, has issued a stark warning that our nation must rethink its over-reliance on real estate.

He said he's calling out the "central truth" that Australia spends way too much on housing and "not anywhere near enough" on productive investment.

Indeed i've been saying that since the 1990s and yet here we are.

He said many Australians say they want improved housing affordability and lower house prices but it's "nonsense" to expect that those things will occur under our current policy settings, because the "entire construct of the Australian economy" is embedded in the housing mortgage book.

Unless there's a volte-face by voters towards The Greens, everything remains the same BUT gets worse

"A dwelling-house, as such, contributes nothing to the revenue of its inhabitants". - Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations

>This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments - Adam Smith

paywalled link

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/4m-pensioners-how-australia-s-tax-system-subsidises-wealth-over-work-20260227-p5o666

Jeff Oughton, 69, cannot understand why people aged in their 20s and 30s are not noisily protesting with placards to demand a better tax deal for working-age people.

“I don’t know why young people aren’t marching in the streets,” says Oughton, a retired bank economist.

“Rich people like me who stopped working at 53 and have been wandering the world travelling and volunteering, their tax rates in retirement are effectively zero.

Have a US and AUD portfolio and looking for a netter tool for metrics and forecasting. Snowball is good but doesn't account for things like CGT and Franking but has excellent dividend forecasting (at least in USD, the AUD div forecasting seems a bit flaky)

AllinvestView has multi currency, similar dodgy AUD div forecasting but handles CGT and Franking. Neither have my AUD broker but AllInvestview does have some Aus brokers at least (for trade updates etc)

It seems like it's nearly there, similar to Sharesite but cheaper.

Looking for feedback and thoughts from others I guess?

or particular interest is the div forecasting, being an old fuck and long retired its good for cashflow.

https://www.allinvestview.com/

My commentary:

By my understanding, the only tools the RBA have to control inflation are: setting interest rates, and quantitative tightening (and conversely easing).

Surely, there must be more regulatory powers we could give them. Understandably, many inflationary controlling functions should remain legislative/departmental, but the bank can act decisively and quickly, so SOME extra powers are in order, in my opinion, so they don't constantly resort to ONLY increasing mortgages and therefore rent as well, every single time.

Just spit-balling here: variable tax rates (income and corporate). Since taxation is so damn unpopular (not to me, tax is necessary to have a functioning society under capitalism), it would make some sense to give regulatory power to alter taxation rates (within a legislated range) to the independent RBA. Let them take the flak for increasing the top tax bracket rate by 3% or something.

What are your opinions/ideas about the RBA?

(Sorry if against community rules, but there weren't any in the side bar)

One of the country’s leading tax experts says the explosion in housing wealth has put Australia on the path towards a neo-feudal society where your prosperity depends in large part whether your parents own land or property.

Mr Stevenson believed there was no financial incentive for the rich and powerful to engage in taxation reform to reduce inequality.

"See, the problem with an inequality crisis is it feels good for rich people," he said.

People could vote Green to move the Overton Window on this but they seem ok with vomiting LNP/ALP and even Mori oddly ONP, so its difficult to have too much sympathy here.

Are there any investment funds (ETFs or mutual funds) which exclusively purchase municipal bonds in “green” cities?

Most mutual funds seem to profit from unethical companies. Genocide (Lockheed, Google), Climate Catastrophe (BP, ExxonMobil), Slavery (Verizon, Walmart). Murder (UnitedHealth, Dow Chemical).

It seems like municipal bonds might be one of the more ethical ways to invest money.

Specifically, I’m looking to invest in cities that are building-out infrastructure that will lead to an elimination on their dependence on fossil fuels. For example:

1. Closing roads and building bicycle lanes.
2. Building electrified trains and dedicated bus lanes.
3. Passing laws to establish a maximum number of parking spots per person.
4. Mixed Zoning (walkable cities)
5. Banning fossil fuel power plants while building hydro/solar/wind/geothermal
6. Passing laws to heavily tax carbon emissions
7. And, of course, cities that invest in education usually get a great ROI.

Cities that come to mind include Paris and New York.

I could try to do all the research myself, and find a bunch of other cities that are on the right path -- but that seems like a full-time job, and it’s probably better to just have a fund manager do this research for us.

Are there already any funds that invest in municipal bonds exclusively in “green” cities?

They have decided to sell their newly finished home and pivot to the tiny house movement due to “cost of living and lack of freedom”.

“Humans are not meant to live this way,” she says. “It’s causing a cascade of issues, health issues, a mental health crisis and the fact that so many people aren’t having kids because they simply can’t afford it.”

Officially old and turned 60 recently, I have investment income outside Super (no formal job) so I contribute voluntary concessional contributions in order to claim a tax deduction on that income earned outside Super.

I could now convert that accumulation account to a pension account and drawdown say $30k per annum tax free and recontribute it to a new accumulation account to claim said $30k as a tax deduction. Gives me more income outside super (cirrently being used to make $30k concessional deductions) to spend on cocaine and hookers or waste it I guess. (I'm so old I remember the George Burns joke, albeit I have mangled it).

Few notes on what I've found out: 4% min draw down needed from age 60-65, 5% min after that and must have an honest to goodness job after 67 in order to have an accumulation account.

Most people seem to use that strategy to avoid super inheritance tax, not sure how that works for that situation, have no dependents anyway and have no insurance in Super becase of that. Have spoken to an advisor at ART Super about the mechanics of it all and will speak to my accountant.

Looking for a sanity check not financual advice per se.

All middle power and developing nations should be in favour of this. Even the g Gulf States would benefit from not being under the economic yoke of USD hegemony.