James Kirby

As it stands, and this is my attempt to sort of distill rumour and speculation, which is around and widely reported, the government is going to change CGT.

The most likely issue is that it's going to change the discount currently available on CGT, which is 50% when you hold an asset for more than a year.

Okay, all clear.

Second part is they may actually change the discount for everything.

The rumor so far has been that it will only be property.

Secondly...

What they'll change it to most likely is the original system pre-1999, where it's inflation adjusted every year.

OK, that's CGT.

Negative gearing.

Would you believe they are still speculating that the government may change it and that they may scrap it for existing properties?

I think I'll just put that one to one side because that's like another show virtually.

Let's just stick with CGT.

Okay, and I have some reader questions on it.

So maybe I'll read them first, Rasty, and give us a flavour of what's around.

We have a question from Simon who says there are media reports that 50% capital gains tax discount would be axed in favour of inflation indexation on new investments across every asset class.

Do you think that will potentially kill the startup community, says Simon?

Simon, I'm going to put... There's some sort of arcane particular startup favorable tax regimes that were put in by the Turnbull government.

They may not be used very much.

But put simply, yeah, sure.

I mean, the whole thing about going into a startup, obviously, is that someday in the future you sell it.