The Fiscal Artisan

Is Property Still a Good Investment? As we approach Tax time again – it’s only four weeks away now! - the questions around tax deductions for this year and beyond start coming in thick and fast. And one of the most common questions is – can I get a tax deduction from buying a property? Of course, the answer is yes – provided that it is an investment (not something you are living in yourself) and the costs of the property – interest and running costs – are higher than the rental received. I have been keeping track of the median value of property in Melbourne over the years, and the following graph shows how it has moved over the years. This is based on the June median value across all dwellings (houses and apartments/units) from 1970 to 2020. It takes out the month by month variation and keeps to a consistent position – outside of the ‘spring and autumn rush’ for each year. While there was a drop in the 2019 year, Covid in itself does not appear to have had as big an impact on prices as

  The Australian Federal  Budget 2021 Once in a lifetime…   Last night – Tuesday, May 11, 2021, the Treasurer handed down the budget for the 21/22 year. While the government won’t describe it this way, it is clearly an election budget – given the next election is due by Mid May 2022, so unless they go with a February 2022 budget announcement, there is no time for a follow up before we next go to the polls. And in the current environment, and with a Government hooked on announcements and re-announcements, rather than significant new action, there is very little in the budget that was not already announced, or simply a continuation of what was already in place but dressed up as a ‘new initiative’. Many of the forecasts and expectations in the budget are predicated on the assumption that ‘everything will go so very well’ in terms of the vaccine roll-out – despite actual vaccination numbers being less than one-third of the way to what was originally planned. The Federal Government expect