international investors

Wayne Swan… “Keep your mitts off the MITs!!”

The doubling of the tax rate applicable to international Managed Investment Trusts (MITs), with no consultation nor warning and – it would appear – based upon miss-guided thinking, not just flies in the face of the plan to make Australia “the hub of finance in Asia”, but the sudden move places Australia on the list of countries with significant Sovereign Risk.

As a result Australia is no longer considered so transparent.

Since the budget, we have seen prudent comments from Property Council of Australia and reports from the likes of Business Council of Australia. These confirm what intuition tells us – that 7.5% of something is better than 15% of nothing. Continue reading

Tax jump jolts investors

Many had raised serious concerns about the transparency of the Australian investment landscape and were considering alternative investment destinations.

A leading Australian property group has strongly criticised federal government tax changes, arguing they have stopped international investors from putting their money into Australian property.

The government in the budget doubled the withholding tax rate for international managed investment trusts (MIT), from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent. The measure has since been approved in the Senate, with a concession for new energy efficient buildings.

Peter Frith, managing director of property and development adviser, Napier & Blakeley, said the action, with no consultation or warning, was a huge mistake and was apparently based on misguided thinking. Continue reading