Wind back negative gearing, Labor told

The NSW ALP conference to be held this weekend will debate tax reform, as federal Labor prepares its election policies.

Federal Labor faces pressure from NSW members of the party to wind back negative gearing and superannuation tax breaks.

Labor's NSW state conference to be held this weekend will debate a raft of motions dealing with tax reform.

Several branches have proposed motions to wind back the use of negative gearing.

A Maitland East branch motion calls negative gearing a "serious drain" on the federal budget and urges the party to impose a sunset clause on existing negative gearing investments.

It says capital gains tax concessions should be removed entirely and future negative gearing should only be available for new dwellings, affordable housing and homes that make better use of existing infrastructure.

"The current law encourages speculative investment in housing that is causing unsustainable increases in house prices and forcing low and middle income Australians from the housing market and into higher cost rental accommodation," the motion reads.

Labor's 2015 national conference committed to reviewing negative gearing.

A motion from the powerful Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association seeks a review of high-end tax concessions on superannuation and the retention of low income super contribution concessions.

The Ermington branch said the contributions tax should be removed and the superannuation guarantee should be shifted to total earnings rather than ordinary time earnings.

The Leichhardt branch seeks the introduction of a Sydney vehicle congestion charge to cut vehicle taxes and charges.

This would form part of a wider review of state taxes and charges including replacing stamp duty with a broader-based land tax.

The conference is also likely to endorse federal Labor's position to opposing any rise in the GST.

A motion to raise the tax-free threshold to $25,000 to assist low income earners has been rejected by the NSW party's policy committee as "counterproductive in isolation".

The conference starts on Saturday.


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2 min read
Published 8 February 2016 1:52pm
Updated 8 February 2016 6:10pm
Source: AAP


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