To the office of the Treasurer,
I would urge that you consider removing the tax breaks afforded to negative gearing of property.

This concept is by far the most cited way I’ve heard to avoid paying tax. Comments like “look at all the tax we pay that goes to the government, but we can write that off if we get an investment property” are common.

This lost revenue then places extra burden on anyone else who does not have investment properties with which to escape paying fair taxes. I would rather have the money going to community rather than feeding bank profits.

Additionally it appears to create an environment of higher housing prices which require mortgages far beyond the possible rental return (further creating difficulties for those wishing to actually enter the market).

At very least the benefits of negative gearing should be restricted to newly created properties only. This would create an incentive for new property development rather than simply funnelling tax dollars into bank interest payments and inflating house prices.

I suspect with the removal of investment properties allowing people to write off tens of thousands up to hundreds of dollars tax we’d be able to lower income taxes.
Regards,
Nathan Lee