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14 July 2026

Home / Author: Graham Hand

Graham Hand

Consider a LIC before you bite into equities

When the opportunity comes along to buy one of the long-established LICs at a good discount, it's the nearest thing to a free lunch the equity markets will give to a long-term investor.

Australian spending habits

* ASIC's Money Smart website shows what Australian households spend their money on. Expenditure averages $69,166 a year.

Sydney most expensive for a 'cheap date'

* Deutsche Bank issues a semi-annual 'cheap date' index, and the world's two most expensive cities are Sydney and Melbourne.

Minister's speeches and announcements

* Major announcements and speeches by the Minister in charge of superannuation, Bill Shorten, can be accessed on his website.

Government caps tax exemption on pension earnings

Here's the full Media Release of today's changes to superannuation, including capping the tax-free earnings from assets supporting a pension at $100,000 a year. The reforms will affect individuals with more than $2 million in super assets, or about 16,000 people in 2014-15. A concessional tax rate of 15 per cent will apply to earnings above $100,000.

Treasury paper on distribution of benefits

* The Treasury paper on distribution of super and pension benefits suggests the equity issue is only with the top 5% of income earners, and contributions tax for them is about to increase.

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Who gains in an AI-supercharged economy?

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Taxation

Div 296's million-dollar reset worth $25,000

The 'cost base reset' for the new super tax is being sold as protection for pre-July gains. A worked example shows $1M of protection is worth about $25,000, and the real deadline has not passed.

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