Latest news with #WilsonAssetManagement
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
The share price of Australia's most expensive bank enters correction territory
Lead portfolio manager with Wilson Asset Management, Matthew Haupt joined The Business to explain why CBA's stock price fell more than 5%, weighing down the entire Australian share market.
ABC News
04-08-2025
- Business
- ABC News
ASX finishes flat after Wall Street slumps
Wilson Asset Management portfolio strategist, Damien Boey, says downward revisions to US jobs data have spooked investors and ignited recession fears. The ASX clawed back early losses to close the day flat.
Daily Mail
26-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
The sneaky way Anthony Albanese will turn Australia into a high-taxing European nation with new super tax
Anthony Albanese risks turning Australia into a high-taxing European nation with his plan for a radical new tax on superannuation savings, an investment group warns. The federal government wants to impose a new 15 per cent tax on unrealised gains on super balances above $3million, where capital growth would be taxed before assets are sold. Wilson Asset Management chairman Geoff Wilson said this departure from taxing capital gains after assets are sold would see Australia share a similarity with European nations, which are renowned for their high taxes and targeting the rich. 'Australia is proving to be no different from Norway, Spain and Sweden, where taxing unrealised gains led to capital exodus and therefore lower than expected tax revenue,' he said. In 2023, the Labor government announced that from July 1, 2025, 0.5 per cent, or 80,000, of super balances with more than $3million would be hit with a new 15 per cent tax on unrealised gains. This would be in addition to the 15 per cent tax on earnings that already exists for all super during the accumulation or working phase. The debut of a new tax on unrealised gains also marks the biggest change to the capital gains tax since it was introduced in Australia in 1985. Previously, European nations have been the main enthusiasts for taxing the notional or paper value of assets, based on gains during a financial year. Norway applies a 38 per cent unrealised gains tax on the wealth of those who leave. Sweden does a similar thing, but with a 30 per cent exit tax on unrealised gains. Spain also has an exit tax, based on unrealised gains, if someone with a large investment portfolio leaves the country to become a tax resident elsewhere. Germany during the 1970s and 1980s taxed unrealised gains on wealth, but the policy was notoriously difficult to administer. France still has a wealth tax that applies on assets worth more than €1.3million (AU$2.1million) of real estate assets, but it stops short of taxing unrealised gains. Other European nations, renowned for having higher income taxes to fund more services, do not touch retirement savings in the way Labor is proposing to do. US Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris last year campaigned to tax unrealised gains on wealth - but only for the ultra rich with assets worth US$100million (AU$152million) or more. Australia would be the first to apply an unrealised gains tax to superannuation, in a bid to raise $2.3billion a year in Budget revenue. Left-leaning crossbench senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie last year declined to back Labor's Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions bill, because they are opposed to taxing unrealised gains. The Greens back taxing unrealised gains but want the threshold reduced to $2million, but indexed to inflation. They hold the balance of power in the Senate, and Labor is still negotiating amendments with the minor party. The government has previously flagged giving Australians a year's notice from the time legislation is passed, with Mr Wilson noting panic selling was already occurring in self-managed super funds to avoid the potential new tax. 'Despite requiring Senate approval, the proposed tax on unrealised gains has already prompted a rush to liquidate assets ahead of the 30 June 2026 implementation date,' he said. Wilson Asset Management has proposed an alternative super tax strategy to Labor's plan to tax unrealised gains, in a submission to the government's Economic Reform Roundtable, where it argued it would raise $2.433billion in revenue. 'The outcome of the proposal would allow the government to increase tax revenue from high balance accounts without breaching the realisation principle of the tax act,' Mr Wilson said. 'Our proposal is in the national interest and a Budget-positive alternative to the government's proposed policy to tax unrealised gains in superannuation.' He proposes to keep the existing structure of taxing realised capital gains, but adding a new 15 per cent tax to balances of $3million to $6million. A 17.5 per cent tax would apply for balances of $6million to $10million, rising to 20 per cent for balances of $10million to $20million and 25 per cent for balances above $20million.
ABC News
16-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
US inflation and tariff fears rattle markets once more - with the ASX seeing its biggest fall in more than ten weeks
Wilson Asset Management's Anna Milne says equities markets still aren't pricing in tariff risks to the same degree as bond markets.
Sky News AU
04-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
'Ridiculous, stupid, insane': Leading fund manager lashes Labor's tax on unrealised gains proposal as PM remains certain on plan
Wilson Asset Management founder Geoff Wilson has fiercely opposed Labor's controversial plan to tax unrealised gains, branding it 'ridiculous,' 'stupid,' and 'insane'. The proposal by the Albanese government to double the tax rate on super accounts above $3m and target unrealised gains on assets came under the microscope at The Australian's Australia's Economic Outlook on Friday. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who presented the keynote address at the event, remained steadfast on the superannuation tax proposal. 'The proposal that was put forward, we put forward in the last term. It would affect just a very small number (of people),' Mr Albanese said, regarding Labor's proposed super tax changes. Questioned about whether he would consider indexing the tax or removing the tax on unrealised gains, the Prime Minister declined. Following Mr Albanese's appearance at the event on Friday, Mr Wilson told Sky News he agreed with sentiments expressed by the Prime Minister in his speech that businesses should be the primary source growth in the economy. But Mr Wilson described the current economic environment for Australian businesses as 'incredibly tough' and urged the Albanese government to 'not overtax and overregulate'. 'And that's the problem I think all Australian companies have got at the moment,' he said. 'Effectively, we don't want any more pleasantries. Our small, medium-sized and even large companies in Australia need some action by this government. We are one of the highest-taxed OECD countries.' Mr Wilson said he hoped to see reductions in both income and corporate tax within the government's tax reform plans, before he took aim the controversial unrealised tax gains proposal. 'One of the things that needs to be off the table is the ridiculous, or stupid, or insane tax on unrealised gains, which really is incredibly negative for medium long-term productivity,' he said. 'Any small growth company in Australia that's looking for patient capital from the superannuation sector, and there's $1.1 trillion in self-managed super funds, that's going to evaporate if this tax comes in.' AustralianSuper chief executive Paul Schroder, who also spoke at this year's Australia's Economic Outlook, also pushed back against the tax plan. Questioned by Sky News' Business Editor Ross Greenwood if he thought the tax was bad policy, Mr Schroder did not give an explicit answer. However, Mr Schroder did say AustralianSuper "prefers less changes than more changes" and that he "would never do anything to anyone else who's trying to make good super".
