Anthony Macdonald

Now we've had a stack of questions, James.

Let's just work through a few of them here.

I want to start with one from Gabe and this is probably the most common sort of question we've got.

We've got a few of these.

He says, I love the pod.

I'm 18, hoping to build a career in finance.

My question is on the CGT reforms.

I'm a full-time student earning below the tax-free threshold, so I pay little or no tax on small capital gains.

From July next year, young investors like myself could face a 30% minimum tax on real capital gains.

If young people are using ETFs in the stock market to build wealth and eventually get into the housing market, doesn't this risk punishing the exact people the budget claims to help?

Yeah, I think, yeah, look.

At the end of the day, trying to make some reasonably passive money here in the stock market, I'm not sure the government's going to buckle on that one.

I mean, if it does buckle, it seems to be more likely to buckle around the active risk takers, your founders and everything that maybe are putting more on the line, employing more people, founding the business, that sort of stuff.

Yeah.

I think at the end of the day, Gabe, the government wants you to be a good wage slave, earn a good income, pay your 45% income tax plus 2% Medicare levy, save your deposit the old-fashioned way, pay tax on the way up.

That's kind of the way it has been and I think that's what they're trying to protect.

But I can totally understand how in his situation, it feels like this budget's just out to get him.

Yeah, I mean, you can kind of see the logic in that one, can't you, James?

I mean, you think the number of houses that are available for rent out there in the market over time should go down.

I mean, the negative gearing changes are grandfathered.