The Chaser Report - Tax Max Rewards Club

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

This bloody superannuation tax RIP OFF is DAYLIGHT ROBBERY to HARD BATTLERS like Dom and Charles. When will the government realise it's unfair to dip into their hard earned hoard of gold? Instead, the pair brainstorm how to improve the tax system with the glitz and glamour of a rewards program.---Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] our caviar addiction: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to the Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Well, Charles, I'm feeling quite down, I've got to say. Oh, yeah. Labor's come in and look, there's no easy way to put this, Charles. They're going after my super. They're going after my super.

They've been only been there for a few more weeks. Yeah. And people with super balances of more. more than $3 million are having to pay extra tax. I know. I mean, what do they want to do? They want to throw people with more than $3 million in Super out on the streets? Like, is that what's happening?

They want to throw us under the bus, Charles, and at the same time, make us pay for the bus that they're throwing us under out of their super. And what are they doing? Are they taking away all the money above $3 million? Yeah, it feels to me like you could retire. entirely on $3 million. No, Charles, inflation. Well, it's getting more expensive.

I need a lot more than $3 million. What they're doing? I mean, they may as well be taking all of it, Charles. I'll tell you what they're actually doing. But they may as well be just taking all of the money. What they're doing is they're proposing a tax rate of 30% instead of 15%. So right now it's 15% tax, which is still too much, still too much. And they're taxing 30% instead.

But there's still a concessional tax rate compared to personal tax. And it's only on the balance, parts of the balance that are above $3 million. So your first few million dollars is a 15%. But Charles, that's a lot, 30%. Charles, you don't understand the whole point of self-managed super funds and all this sort of stuff, is to avoid paying any tax. I mean, it's just concerning stuff. I mean, it sort of makes you feel like you're in North Korea when you hear stories like that.

Oh, it's so like North Korea, except that the only person with more than $3 million in the super is Kim Jong-un over there. Because the thing is, like, if you've got over $3 million, Why should you have to pay for the hospital, schools and roads? You know what I mean? Like, if you're that rich, you've probably done something in your life bad enough that shows you're an unethical person who doesn't like contributing to the public will. Lockland, can we mark this bit in the podcast for when Charles becomes very wealthy off the back of Wankanomics?

We'll play this back at him. See, the point is, like, people who have under three million. are the type of people probably who are more likely to be fine with paying to hospital, schools and roads because they acknowledge that they're part of a society and they want, you know, their friends and families and neighbours and everyone to sort of, you know, live in a society which functions well, whereas I think, I feel like if you're, particularly, you've been to Mossman, you've been to the eastern suburbs. I've been to those places, yeah, I have.

I can't afford to live there. They're cunts, right? Like they cut you off in traffic. They're horrible people, right? You're just trying to say Turak, by the way? What? Is Turak a rich suburb? Turak?

Yeah, Turak is the Melbourne, Bellevue Hill. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, so they're the people who are most going to resent contributing to society, right? So they shouldn't, they should be taxed the least because their level of resentment is always going to be higher. Do you see what I mean? Yeah, look, it's very rough on.

them and the other change Charles that's quite challenging with all this and that's really just stuck me that's a knife to the knife to the gut is that it's not just uh for realized that earning so you know this is currently the 15% is on dividends and interest income things like that coming in but they're also taxing unrealizing increases in the value of assets so for instance if i use my self-managed super fund to buy an apartment and then it goes up to two million dollars in a year or two the way many of them have, I'd have to be taxed on that increase, rather than when we sell it. Absolutely outrageous, Charles. I'm stashing all these apartments for my children.

I don't want to. I'm not going to sell them. And then when I die, the Superfund will go to my children and then they'll get them without any tax. Just to be clear, this is not a thing I'm actually doing, just in case you hate me. I'm so far from this. You can't even imagine. No, but you raise an important point, which is the Labor Party just doesn't have any time for

property hoarders. Won't someone think of the hoarders for once? But Charles, surely, I thought we were protected from this by the fact that many Labour MPs own many properties. Yes. So, but I actually have a theory about this text that I want to outline to you, Dom. I believe that it's going to affect a tiny percentage of people, right? Because the whole point is, if you've got over $3 million in super,

you can always just hold that money not in super if you want to. It's 80,000 people. Yeah. 80,000 people. Most of them above retirement age. So yes, they could cash it in, presumably. Yeah, exactly. So there's other ways to deal with it. Like, you know, it's something that I think is known as a good problem to have, having so much money that the government wants to tax it more slightly. But the interesting thing is that during the election campaign, the tax office, or, you know, I think a minister acting on the advice of the tax office said there's actually, there's like 40 people, in the country that have massive, massive superbalances, right?

And the ATO can't, for privacy reasons, reveal who those exact people are, right? But, you know, I think, to be honest, I actually reckon this policy is not so much a sort of broad-based sort of like, let's get all the grannies in Mossman, although I applaud it for that. I think it's more that I reckon there's, my conspiracy theory is that the sort of super rich, like the Gina Ryan Hearts and the Twiggy forests and the Clive Palmer's, or one or all of them, must have stashed like literally hundreds of millions of dollars in this amazing tax shelter.

Like, that actually what it's being done is the superannuation system is actually being used as a sort of more effective tax shelter than the sort of elaborate family trusts and things like that that rich people normally use to avoid tax. But Charles, surely the very, very rich, the billionaires you're talking about, their assets are held through companies and things, right? Like, wouldn't it be,

who would have huge, no, but who would, I mean, I'm just wondering how people would, would get all that money in super, rather than, I mean,

if you're a massive billionaire, it's all, doesn't it all get invested in companies? You don't have, how, I don't know how they would have the super. But I think that this, like this loophole has been available

for like 30 years or something like that. of what's happened is like tax accountants have gone actually we could use family trusts for your fortune but actually there's this whole new tax sheltered thing a bit like the 401k in the US called superannuation which is actually even more effective than a family trust and allows you to keep complete control over it unlike a family trust where you know there's a sort of trustees and it's it's more complicated and I think there's capital gains tax problems with family trust and things like that and holding things in companies. When you say problems, you mean some small amount of money dribbles through to the

office. Yeah, yeah, to hospital, schools and roads. Yeah, that's right. Of course we want to minimize that. That's the agenda. The aim here is to avoid having to, you know, cover the cost of society, basically. Yeah. But this is my, look, maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe I'm completely wrong. But this is my little conspiracy theory is that actually there's a few people, like 40 people who have literally hundreds of millions of dollars in their super. And it's such a sort of, like I think it sort of offends the sensibility of, you know, every Labor parliamentarian, because Labor was, Labor set up superannuation very much as an idea that, because what was happening was white-collar workers were getting pensions and actually having fairly good retirements. And then the Stormen and Packers Union, the literally the workers,

whose job it was to kill chickens and then rip the innards out of the chickens, right? They organised, this was back in the late 1970s and they went, we want to have the same pension benefits that all the white-collar admin workers in it were worst headquarters get, right? Yes, I heard this clip. I heard this clip, I was blatantly listening to 7am this morning. They played a clip of Keating in the parliament. I mean, actually did the research on this because they've got a budget, you know,

full-time producers. They ripped out the archival audio of Keating. talking about blue-collar workers who just can't afford to put money aside unless they're compelled to do so. So what a wonderful thing, Charles, that the system now is compelling billionaires to stash all this money in super. Well, that I'm Mr Keating. The Chaser Report, now with extra whispers. Like, I think it's an aesthetic problem with the scheme as much as anything. It was designed actually to make sure that everyone, you know, gets a decent retirement.

Yeah, they don't like it on use for tax minimisation by the three. very rich. Yeah, the idea that it's being used as tax minimisation or as a way to, you know, send your inheritance on largely tax-free to, you know, to sort of create intergenerational wealth is just not what the scheme was designed for. If you're going to do that, go out and set up some family trusts like everyone used to. Because the self-managed super fund is kind of a similar thing. I mean, I'm no expert on this, but yeah, from what I understand, the whole point of that is that you do stash assets in there that potentially you then pass. so on, which you can't do with regular super, where it's just a bunch of cash that comes through.

You can't buy a property unless you've got the self-managed super fund. So it is quite like a family trust. Wouldn't it be an amazing thing, Charles, to be in a position to actually have the wealth to work out where to stash it? Do I put it in my super or do I get self-managed super? Do I set up a family trust? I'm just imagining a universe where I've got like a spare little bit of cash where I can stash into place.

It's just completely surreal to me. But we do this. So, like, I've got, we've got a health account for, to pay for, like, medication and doctor's visits, right? In our Commonwealth Bank app, you know, you can create buckets now. And I went to, uh, I went to buy some Panadol this morning. And I thought, oh, well, I'll put it on my health account, like, use that debit card. And, um, there was no money in it. So, yeah.

But, you know, in theory, in theory, I mean, it doesn't matter how many buckets. It doesn't matter how many buckets you have. have Charles if they're empty that's that's the thing oh you know you move things to the petrol account do you have a petrol expensive account no no I'm a electric car yeah Charles um here's this is it's actually my fault because I went to see wankanomics you gave me a free ticket if I'd paid for that ticket you could have afforded that pad it off I'll bring some over this is such a different well someone someone got in touch with me yesterday saying oh um I'm My investment business is setting up in Australia.

This is a guy I've known for a long time. If you know anyone who wants access to like founders capital, don't want to let me know. And I was like, what? Like, it's just a completely different reality. I know people who've... What's founders capital? I know.

He's just looking to set up to basically put venture capital into startups in Australia, this guy. And so, and these people I know who are, you know, barristers and partners and firms and all this stuff. They've got too much money. They don't know where to put it. Yeah, they just go,

What I'm going to do with my money is instead of spending it on, you know, high-class hookers and cocaine. Well, presumably they do that already. They probably do that and they have surplus on top of it. Their high-class hookers and cocaine account bucket is still fine. Yeah, yeah, there's plenty of guys in there. And so they put it into things that will then make them more money. That's the true definition of wealth is when you're spending like your free cash on just like fun things that make you more money.

Like, what the fuck? Charles, I've just had an idea. Work with me on this. And it's probably been thought of and it's stupid. But just if this is right, this will fix everything. Oh, good. Okay. Yeah, this is going to fix everything?

Charles, is there a way we can make it so that terrible rich people instead of buying more properties for themselves or investing it in, I don't know, managed funds or whatever they do with it? Just go and look at all the portfolios of all the, the, you know, politicians and stuff, you can see all the different funds that they have. Could we get them to invest their money in hospitals and schools and roads, not owned by the private sector, owned by the public sector that generates a return? Like, if you help to build a hospital, when that hospital is then used for the next, I don't know, 100 years,

there'll be some sort of revenue coming your way and appeal to their sense of selfishness. Can we untapped, can we tap the selfishness of rich people to actually build things that non-rich people can use? Would that work? That's called government bond. That's how the government funds it, it borrows money. That's what it does. I suppose the alternative would be... Alternatively, Charles, they could pay tax.

I like the idea that they voluntarily, they're maybe required, yeah, to give their money and then they get to see the consequences of a healthy society, of good hospital, schools and roads. Maybe through some sort of index system where the more you earn, the more you pay, because you can afford it. Oh, you think that's like compulsory?

Yeah, like a compulsory scheme. But the benefit is the thing that they get back and the reason why it appeals to their sense of selfishness is because they get to live in a society that functions properly. I don't know. I don't even call it, Charles. What would you even call a system like that? I think you'd call it something like AI-powered finance bonds or something.

You wouldn't call it tax. Oh, it is tax, isn't it? Because we're dedicated to minimising that. You've got to minimise tax. Don't want to pay any of that. Maybe we need to just make tax maximisation trendy. Yes, and rename it. We shouldn't call it tax.

That's the latest flex. We should call it the Australia Fund. Tax max. Yeah, tax max. And maybe it's a loyalty scheme. The more tax you pay, the more badges you get. You get trinkets. You get points.

You get points. It's a loyalty scheme. Yes. And you get rewards like, I don't know, one bonus emergency room, is it? And you get a diamond, if you get diamond status, you get to walk around with a little diamond status. Yeah, a little pin, maybe you get a key ring, you get a key, and you can put it on your bag tags. I've got it. I actually have got it.

Yeah. That's what the Order of Australia should be. Yes. I mean, it kind of is in some cases, but the Order of Australia should be for people who pay a lot of tax rather than people who don't. And, you know, the people who instead of paying tax, minimise their tax and give money to charity and then get AOs because they've given money to charity. You know what the problem is though, Dom? Because there was a study about this and the people who pay the highest rates of tax

are actually the sort of middle income earners in white-collar jobs. It's things like teachers and nurses, like principals. Once they get to hire management of, and they can't tax minimise, yeah, I understand. Yeah, they can't tax minimise in any way, but they're still on the top marginal tax rate. That's the people who get caught up in this. Like professors at universities and stuff.

Yeah, professors of universities. universities would all start getting orders of Australia. And then there'd be none left for the Twiggy forests and the Gina Rhinarts. Is that how your sister got her A.M.? Do you think maybe that's it? That's the reason. She was tax max. Anyway, I do love the idea of the government operating some sort of points scheme

where you get rewards and trinkets. If you pay more tax, we should run that up the line. Yeah, you get a free trip to Canberra. Or if you get more points, you get to not go to Canberra. Hey, get it. All right, let's call it. We've just solved everything again. Thank you very much.

I know. They really should. Because people do listen to this for good policy ideas. Yeah. So they should start implementing them. I'm just saying it's almost the King's birthday. You know, what about some little AO Auto Australia love for us? You know what we should do? Because it's going to net $2 billion this super tax, right?

This new super tax. And more coming because it's not indexed, yeah. Yeah. And what we should do with that money? University is buy Qantas, re-nationalised Qantas, because everyone wants access to the Qantas Club. Yes. And then that's how you run the point scheme.

You just make the Qantas frequent flyer club, the Tax Max Club, and say, Chairman's Lounge is only available to people who maximise their tax. Fucking everyone would start doing it. That's actually, that would totally work. Or you make a better lounge. You don't have to buy Qantas. You just have another, even better lounge. people actually pay their tax.

And what you do is, like, it would mean that people would want the abolition of negative gearing because that minimises their tax too much. They'd start wanting to have to pay full rates of capital gains tax and not tap into the concessions that have. And imagine how easy it would make tax time because no one would claim any deductions. Yes. And then things like that sort of $1,000 deductible bonus, no one would tick the box that I brought in.

No, they'd go. No, no. I want to do it. I want the points. I'm a tax max. Yeah. All right. Okay. Mission accomplished again. Yeah, that's good. Okay. I'll run that up. I'll bring the prime minister's office and see if they're up for it. I'm dedicated, Charles, to paying maximum tax in the event that I ever earn enough from this podcast to pay tax on money for this podcast. We're part of the iconic class network. If you've got any great ideas for tax max, you know what to do, email podcast at chaser.com.