Franking Credits - Brilliant article, 38512906, page-36 - HotCopper | ASX Share Prices, Stock Market & Share Trading Forum

Originally posted by corp01: ↑

Thanks Sabbath. I am a self funded retiree to and are adversely affected through my SMSF as well. The Howard Govt's decision to refund franking credits in 2001 was, in my opinion, a bad decision for the long term sustainability of the Commonwealth's budget position, and more broadly for investment behavior in Australia. It also provides govt assistance to people like me who don't need such assistance - there are about (at a guess) 10-20% of the population doing it really tough and need govt help. At least you may have (I hope) benefited for a few years (in my case 5 years as I retired in 2014). The question of whether the proposed franking credit refund measure will get through the Parliament could be answered next Saturday night. Further, if Labor gets elected, I think the measure will be soften further in some way (may be a concession for SMSFs allowing them to claim a refund up to a cap of (say) $5000) in order to get it through the Parliament.

I like to say that there are a lot of things the Labor Party is proposing to do which I don't like but at least they are being up front what they plan to do. I also don't like the Liberal Party's tax cuts for high income earners (and the flattening of the income tax system where someone on $45,000 pays the same marginal tax rate as someone on $200,000) which, in my view, is unsustainable and will make the Commonwealth's budget position in long term deficit. As an illustration of this point, the Howard Govt's income tax cuts in 2007 which the Labor Party implemented almost in full post the 2007 is an important factor causing the Commonwealth's budget position to be in deficit for more than a decade since 2007. I note that my view on income tax cuts is also my self interest as I don't benefit in any material way from those income tax reductions as I am retired.

I also like to say that I would be more respectful of our senior politicians on both sides of politics as they are in fact extremely hard working (and I suspect more hard working than some of our CEOs who head major companies), are genuinely seeking to improve Australia, they are certainly not out to increase personal wealth (they are more interest in how history judges them) and they have to make tough decisions which adversely affect people but the decisions have to be made in the national interest. They are also not well paid relative to their for the responsibilities. As an example, they are paid substantially less than the heads of government departments who advise them (which makes no sense to me - department heads are paid, in my opinion, far too much for what they do).

All the best with your investing - being successful at this difficult task will hopefully at least partially offset, and if you get lucky more than offset, any loss of franking credit refunds if the measure is ultimately implemented.

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Voters need to understand the difference between a tax credit and a tax offset/rebate under tax legislation.
Tax credits are refundable under law (think PAYG witholding, PAYG instalments). You have paid too much tax based on your taxable income. Tax offsets/rebates are non-refundable (think Low Income tax offset).
What Mr Shorten & Mr Bowen want to do is turn a franking credit (imputation credit) into a franking offset. Why don’t they say as much.
And if they pull that off, why not do the same for PAYG withholding or PAYG instalments. In that case, no more refunds of overpaid tax people.