Joseph Daoud Spends $17,500 on Albanese Government Capital Gains Tax Billboards
Joseph Daoud has spent $17,500 on an airport billboard campaign against albanese government capital gains tax changes as Parliament began a new sitting week. The mortgage broker’s message is aimed at lawmakers flying into Canberra and at the policy fight over how capital gains will be taxed beyond housing.
Joseph Daoud Airport Campaign
$17,500 bought the billboard outside the airport and messages on digital surfaces inside the terminal for the full Parliamentary sitting week. Daoud, the founder of a mortgage brokerage firm, used the space to attack the Budget changes and push a warning to arriving politicians.
The billboard read: “Investing in shares? Saving a deposit? Building a business? Your ambition will be taxed under proposed CGT changes,”. Daoud said he had met with dozens of small business owners, fielded phone calls from first home buyers, and held roundtables with the Shadow Treasurer before putting the campaign up.
“After meeting with dozens of small business owners, fielding phone calls from first home buyers and holding roundtables with the Shadow Treasurer … ambitious Australians still aren’t being listened to,” Daoud wrote on LinkedIn. “I spent $17,500 on these billboards because I know for a fact that this budget is going to disable hope for all young Australians, anyone looking to start a business, anyone who invests in shares or other markets or anyone that is looking to purchase their first home,” he said.
Capital Gains Tax Backlash
50 per cent is the current capital gains tax discount the government is facing criticism over scrapping, with the plan moving toward a discount based purely on inflation. The Budget changes extend beyond housing, pulling share investors and businesses into the dispute just as lawmakers return to Canberra for the new sitting week.
9 per cent historic returns and 2.5 per cent inflation at the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target imply a sharper tax burden for share investors under a typical scenario, with the analysis saying they could face paying nearly double the rate of tax on gains. Young share investors are expected to be hit disproportionately, and former Liberal Party Treasurer under the John Howard government said the young will have a lifetime of these higher taxes.
Richard Holden, a UNSW economist, released analysis on Sunday saying higher performing businesses would effectively be punished upon a sale. “This is the worst possible plan for a country in need of more jobs, and more economic growth,” he said. “It’s a productivity tax in the middle of a productivity crisis. Unfortunately, that is the perverse logic of a productivity tax, they punish high productivity businesses for doing well, growing fast, and creating more jobs.”
The campaign now gives arriving parliamentarians a visible counter-message before the debate hardens further. If the government wants the heavier tax regime to stick, it will have to explain why share investors, first home buyers and business founders should carry more of the load than they do under the current 50 per cent discount.
