Monday 12 November 2007

Another Election Carrot

After several months of 'phoney election campaign', and three weeks of official campaigning, the Liberal Party had it's offiial campaign launch today and announced around $9 billion dollars worth of election promises. After Labour had announced a promise of a $750 tax rebate for the purchase of computers or other high tech equipment by parents for their high school kids, the Liberals today outdid this with a promise for a tax rebate of $800 for every secondary school student which could be used for any educational cost, such as uniforms or school fees, not just computers. Personally this is a better deal for me as the $400 rebate applies for preschool as well as primary school students, so we would be able to get this rebate for DS2's preschool year, not just $375 from when he starts primary school. The Liberal version of the educational tax rebate is promised not to be means tested, whereas the Labor version might be, which would probably mean we'd miss out on any benefit.

The other Liberal election promise regarding home affordability is also much better for us than the Labor version. The Libs scheme allows parents, grandparents and friends to contribute a total of $1000 a year into home savings accounts for children. The savings would be accessible to buy a first home once the account holder turns 18. This would be a good way for me to invest some money on behalf of DS1 and DS2 in a tax effective manner. I already invest a similar amount for each of them annually via a Child Superannuation account, but those funds won't be available to them until they reach retirement age!


Copyright Enough Wealth 2007



1 comment:

mOOm said...

These election promises are just getting sillier and sillier. None of this will actually help home affordability and I don't even know what to say about the Liberal education tax break... hmmm maybe I'll swing back towards Labor again now :)