I thought the central “lie” of negative gearing was that landlords could spend money improving their properties, claim the rent received on said property could never cover the cost of said improvements but in reality be accruing massive capital gains on said property - which will never be taxed until the sale of the property. In the meantime the money spent on these improvements can reduce the owner’s income tax, potentially to zero, despite the owner accruing massive wealth (via increases in property value intrinsic to the market and extrinsic via the improvements made to said property) that will not be taxed. Am I missing something?
In that case, if the renovation wasn’t deducted off primary income by negative gearing, it would be deducted off the CGT tax when the property is sold as it could count as a capital expense.
IF the property is sold. In the meantime little or no tax is paid by the owner, and millions of people are priced out of the market. The owner however can borrow against the higher estimated value of their property and purchase more property to pull the same moves again. Wealth concentrates towards the rich, inequality increases.
I’m not sure what point you’re making, but someone sitting on 10 properties with a total networth of $20M cannot spent any of that until they sell the property. That’s $20M is on paper wealth. That $20M only becomes real wealth when they sell up, at which point it attracts CGT.
