And now the grubberment is thinking about charging people rent to live in their own homes:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-13/australia-is-a-homeowners-welfare-state-m...A new paper from the economists considers the untaxed income owner-occupiers get from their homes, via "imputed rent" — the value of living in your own house without paying rent — and capital gains made when the home's value rises.
They show that when
imputed rent and accrued capital gains are included in the income measure, inequality is higher, and rising more significantly, than official statistics suggest.
The research, using Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) data, highlights that while the average annual disposable income of outright home owners in Australia is 34 per cent higher than renters, when housing income is also counted it is 86 per cent higher.
The professors say that, since income from investing in owner-occupied housing is tax-free in Australia, while all other investments attract tax, Australians are encouraged to pour money into housing instead of more productive investments.
Treasury estimates it forgoes $50 billion a year in revenue by exempting owner-occupied housing from the Capital Gains Tax (CGT).
"There is also no tax on the rental value of owner-occupied housing, although we did tax such 'imputed rental income' between 1915 and 1923," Siminski and Wilkins write in their Conversation article.
In their paper, they argue that the favourable tax treatment of owner-occupied housing is "a major driver of inequality, undermining the redistributive role of government".
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