Labor's menacing tax memo to the world

This issue attracted a lot of attention in my world, the institutional investment community. It was a complete reversal of a recent policy change, and quite at odds with what has been happening overseas (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7).
I must say it left many overseas investors totally baffled at how we like to call ourselves the "clever country".

So why provide a tax break to foreigners? (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7.)
I've got some US investment and unless I provided them with information I was to be taxed at 30%, but by filling out the appropriate forms will be taxed at 15%.
So why should foreigners be taxed less on the income than what my SMSF will pay?

Yes agree. Also a withholding tax of 10% would have been smarter meeting other foreign withholding rates e.g interest earned by foreigners in Australia (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7).

Alexander, thank you for saying things that are required to be said (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7).
Australia must get it's investment houses in order. What I am saying is that Australias superannuation holdings are more than we require to fund All Australian investment. So, it is clearly time to manage this portfolio, with Australian investments as the core value.
Australia, needs to learn from the US entreprenuer. Not borrow from him.
We need university lecturers from the USA.

"We desperately need international investment." Really? Superannuation funds now total $1.3 trillion, yet "foreign investment … is vitally important" (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7). Granted, super funds are notable for their preference for financial speculation with their vast amounts of members' money rather than investing in socially or industrially useful enterprises.
Back in 2000, 80% of foreign investment was to buy existing Australian owned business. . . The level of foreign ownership doubled in the [1990s] decade to 21% of gross domestic product, and the money leaving Australia for foreign owners also doubled, reaching $12 billion.
An effective and interventionist socio-economic strategy matters more than ownership. Colonial and Commonwealth economic history conclusively demonstrates that active and specific government intervention is not only highly effective but also is necessary if the public interest (that of the millions and not the millionaires) is to be served.
Not having an effective and interventionist socio-economic strategy is very costly for any small, open economy, be it Greece or Australia. Greece, much discussed, is simply facing the future most countries will face as resources become more expensive and the bill arrives for decades of debt-driven "growth". It needs socialism, not criticism.

Thank you Alexander (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7).
The situation is actually worse because at the same time the tax withholding has doubled, the 50% CGT
discount has been scrapped for overseas investors even for existing investments.
This will put more downward pressure on commercial real estate.
We are a property syndication business, and we must now have all our properties valued as per June 2012, as our investors only benefit CGT reduction up to that date.
Not a good story indeed to our overseas investors!

Does anyone know whether the ALP and it's budget officers ever seek advice from the RBA before they embark on these international taxing schemes? (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7.)
IMO all governments should look at the trading model used by Coles and Woolworths Supermarkets when they started off in the food businesses low margins delivered high turnovers delivered higher surpluses but I bet if these two major Supermarkets used the ALP model of making more per sale their turnovers would drop and I bet so would their surpluses.

There is already too much foreign investment and takeovers of what still exists of our few remaining companies (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 8).
We need the foreign interests to actually pay like local citizens do. In part it is the distortions in the tax system that is providing an added incentive for foreign ownership of our businesses, I want to see them pay the same sort of taxes as we do. Make them pay tax at the highest marginal rate of tax, and not at just 15%.
We really need a public audit of what each foreign company pays in tax. I suspect they pay next to nothing using all sorts of tax minimisation measures. In addition they refuse to train locals and demand the right to bring in cheaper labour as if we were some sort of colony.
One thing that should not be allowed is the use of interest payments as a tax deduction by foreign firms as they are simply buying up our companies with borrowed funds and having the interest payments on those borrowings as a tax deduction. In addition Xstrata was reported as having made a tax loss of some $600m by buying a non-performing asset from Glencore (a related company) - I wonder how many multinationals are doing this?
The upshot is that there is now talk of raising the goods and service tax from 10% to 15% to cover the loss of government revenue.
Yet our journalists are silent about the real negative issues that foreign investment are causing and just seem talk about all the supposed good things that generally never seem to eventuate to our benefit. I guess our journalists are just not competent to do serious economic analysis.

Did the government upset some financiers, by raising the with- holding tax to international parity, without consulting them first? (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7.)
Even sovereign risk was mentioned.
When Indonesia, Mongolia et al insist on getting back the "farm"
on their terms, that is sovereign risk. Doesn't stop investment but
We are only a risk to ourselves and our children. Stop selling and start clawing back.
Start pricing gas at US prices.
Upset a few more people.

This hike only affects foreign investors who can't offset the withholding tax against their domestic tax liability, under double taxation agreements. (Labor's menacing tax memo to the world, January 7)
May even deter some of the hot funds which are pumping up the AUD, so the change is not necessarily ill conceived.