Morning Briefing: Government scraps negative gearing plans

The federal government has abandoned plans to target negative gearing... ASIC starts consultations with industry on broker commissions...

Government scraps negative gearing plans
The federal government has abandoned plans to target negative gearing as part of its tax reform policy, the Australian Financial Review reports. 

Senior sources have confirmed to the newspaper that although the potential cap on negative gearing deductions  at $20,000 a year had been considered, it has been decided "we're not going to touch it".

The policy would have had to apply to existing investors with multiple properties to be able to raise $1 billion it was worth annually. A source said it was "in our DNA not to apply tax increases retrospectively".

ASIC starts consultations with industry on broker commissions
The Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) CEO Peter White says brokers "should be heartened" by the wide and open consultative approach taken by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on the review into broker commissions.
 
White has been part of several pre-emptive teleconferences and face-to-face discussions with the regulator saying a broad cross section of the broking distribution chain had been invited to ASIC’s discussions which included lenders, aggregators and single licence holders.

“From the discussions, it was clear the regulator had no preconceived outcomes in mind and they asked pertinent questions relating to the  parameters and relevance of the proposed scoping of this review, and input relating to the influencing factors and structures of commissions in the home loan sector,” said White.
 
“More importantly, this was an opportunity by the industry to ask and submit questions relevant to last year’s Financial System Inquiry which among other things probed remuneration structures and the similarities, or lack of, with other instruments like insurance or financial advice.”

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