Labor leader Bill Shorten claims that his just announced policy changes to the tax treatment of dividends will only affect the wealthy.
Try telling that to the thousands of self-funded and part pensioner retirees living in St George that could be affected by these changes.
As reported in the Leader (March 21) the Association of Independent Retirees (A.I.R) has identified that there will be many St George and Sutherland Shire retirees who will lose a few thousand dollars each year from their modest budgets.
Throughout Australia some 1.8 million people could lose income.
Mr Shorten cannot claim that they are all wealthy.
The vast majority of those affected are people who have worked hard paid their taxes and managed to put something away for their retirement.
This is aimed at the ‘little people’.
Mr Shorten plans to exempt the Future Fund which benefits to the tune of nearly $400 million a year. Surely that is the ‘big end’ of town.
In the end if this goes ahead it will affect almost every Australian as the share market drops further and Financial Advisors tell investors to move their money overseas.
Neil Birdsall, Mortdale
I completely agree with the Comment piece “Shorten’s brutal tax grab” (Opinion, March 21).
I am 66-years-old and my wife and I are self-funded retirees substantially invested in great Australian companies.
Over my 43 years of working life I paid tax every year and followed our Governments’ superannuation advice and finally managed in the last 20 years of my career to contribute within the super system a “sufficient amount” for an independent self-funded retirement.
It was not easy but we planned early, worked very hard (12 to 14 hour days in the last 20 years) and stuck to our plan which both Labor and Liberal Governments heartily encouraged. My family of five has not once relied on any Government hand-outs.
Labour’s proposal is an unconscionable and predatory political decision to undertake an easy tax grab from self-funded retirees.
Is it too hard for you Mr Shorten to undertake the much harder, long overdue, political decision of a total tax system reform (including negative gearing) which will benefit the whole nation? Obviously he doesn’t have the guts!
The Opposition Treasure’s statements that investing in Australian companies that pay their tax is not good investment strategy and that investors could possibly apply all or part of these investments into property to offset their franking credits is nothing but a cruel and uninformed joke.
Should we move our investments out of Aussie shares to investment properties and put further pressure on the capacity of first home buyers to enter the housing market?
It is clear the Labor party has lost touch with what is happening in the real world.
Graham Bayley
