CGT budget changes: Business owners vow to ramp up fight against ‘ambition tax’

Opponents of the Federal Government’s Budget tax overhaul have vowed to step up their fight as the Prime Minister insists the changes will go ahead before any sector is exempted.

Derided as an “ambition tax”, small business owners are pushing for genuine consultation on the changes that they say will dramatically alter how they do business.

“Small business owners deserve a seat at the table. They are the people this policy will hit hardest,” said Joseph Daoud, a mortgage broker who has spent $17,500 on digital billboards inside and outside Canberra Airport targeting the changes during sitting week.

His petition, titled “Stop the Ambition Tax”, argues the proposed changes would hit small business owners, young investors, tradies and side-hustlers “simply trying to get ahead”.

“This isn’t a tax on the top end of town,” the petition says.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the legislation to be tabled on Thursday would contain the “core elements” of the Budget tax package, with exemptions and implementation details pushed into a second tranche after Treasury consultation.

“That’s the normal way that tax policy has been implemented for a long period of time,” said Mr Albanese, who also defended the lack of detailed consultation before Budget night.

“What you cannot do is go out there and sit down with people and say, okay, from Budget night this change is definitely going to occur in detail, because there are implications of that, that’s called insider knowledge,” he said.

That has become the flashpoint for debate over the controversial policy, with critics warning consultation over possible carve-outs cannot happen behind closed doors.

Mr Daoud said he was a “business owner with a wife and young kid” who felt he could not sit on the sidelines as the legislation moved closer to Parliament.

He said the proposed changes would “rip any notion of a business exit strategy to shreds”.

“If I wanted to sell my business — with my client book, the amount of social interaction our website gets and the strength of our brand — it would harm us significantly,” he said.

“Once the business is sold, the money earned from the sale goes directly to me. That means I would have to effectively pay 47 cents in the dollar in tax just because I want to exit my business, when previously it was 23.5 per cent.”

The campaign has also been joined by a separate petition by Wilson Asset Management founder Geoff Wilson, whose petition calls on the Senate to reject the CGT overhaul.

The petition says the proposed capital gains tax changes will discourage long-term investment in Australian businesses, innovation, farms and other productive assets.

“Great nations encourage people to take risks, build businesses, invest for the future and create wealth,” Mr Wilson said. “Weak nations tax those behaviours until they disappear. Australia is at a crossroads. Sign the petition to protect aspiration, investment and opportunity.”

The backlash is not unanimous.

Ben Walsh, financial adviser and principal consultant at WealthVantage Partners, said legislating the CGT changes was a “line ball choice” between an economy built on wages and work, and one built on lightly taxed asset gains.

“The Government is clearly choosing to shift the dial back toward labour,” he said.

Mr Walsh said replacing the 50 per cent CGT discount with CPI indexation and a 30 per cent floor would be less generous to long-term capital, but argued that was the point.

“A tighter, better targeted CGT regime is not an attack on aspiration,” he said.

“It’s a recognition that a healthy consumer economy depends much more on secure, rising wages than on tax-preferred capital gains for a relatively small share of households.”

Mr Walsh said the political debate will be fierce, but economically this is a move away from “subsidising post‑2008 asset booms” and toward “rebuilding a wage‑led, consumer‑backed economy”.

“A fair go and a strong middle class, not windfall gains on a handful of assets, are what Australia should be built on.”

Mr Albanese said Treasury would consult peak groups — including the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tech Council — before the second bill is brought forward.

Rachel Waterhouse, chief executive of the Australian Shareholders Association, which was not mentioned by name by the Prime Minister, said genuine consultation had to include everyday investors.

“Investors need clear communication and the opportunity to understand the practical consequences before making long-term portfolio decisions,” she said.