2019 may be the last chance to invest tax effectively using negative gearing and the current CGT discount rate

I currently have a relatively modest amount of margin loan debt used to purchase a portfolio of growth assets (some direct investments in managed funds and shares, and some ETF investments in index funds), as I was forced to reduce my gearing during 2008 in order to avoid margin calls, and have taken a more conservative approach ever since.

This will probably change during 2019, as if Labor wins the Federal election (which seems highly probable at the moment) they intend to make massive changes to both the CGT concessional tax rates and the ability to use margin loans and negative gearing to reduce overall taxable income. According to their current policy website:

• Limit negative gearing to new housing from 1 January 2020. All investments made prior to this date will not be affected by the changes and will be fully grandfathered.
• Halve the capital gains tax discount for all assets purchased after 1 January 2020. This will reduce the capital gains tax discount from assets held longer than 12 months from 50 per cent to 25 per cent. All investments made prior to the 1 January 2020 will be fully grandfathered.

One positive feature for investors is that investments made during 2019 will still enjoy the current CGT and negative gearing rules going forward. So I'm in the process of transferring $50,000 of my available credit in my St George Portfolio Loan (a home equity loan) into my Commsec Margin Loan account, and I will then purchase $100,000 of growth assets (probably MVW and QUAL ETFs). The dividends from those investments should be less than then interest paid, which under the current negative gearing rules will reduce my taxable income from wage salary etc. When I sell the investments any capital gain will be discounted by 50% before being taxed at whatever marginal tax rate applies to me at the time. If Labor does win the election I'll think about doing the same again before the end of 2019.  While my taxable income will be reduced this year and next by tax deductions for my FP business and self-education costs, in a few years time (all going well) being able to reduce my taxable income may be more important.

A rough calculation shows that investing after the removal of negative gearing would cost me around $3,500 per year more in tax. And that investing next year rather than this year would mean any future capital gain on the investment would be effectively taxed at 75% of my marginal tax rate, rather than the current 50%. (Although this could be managed by only selling a small portion each year after I've retired and receiving a tax-free pension income from my SMSF, so that the CG was subject to nil or low marginal tax rates, in which case the CGT discount rate would not matter).

If nothing else, investing using my margin loan facility after 1 Jan 2020 would make my tax calculations a lot more cumbersome - I would have to keep track of what amount of the loan had been used to purchase investments prior to 1 Jan 2020, and how much afterwards. This could then be used to calculate the proportion of interest paid during the year that could be deducted against other income (eg. salary income) and how much interest was not deductible against other income, but only offset against dividend income. Additional complexities will be introduced if several investments are made after 1 Jan 2020, so the ratio of pre- and post- borrowed/invested funds changed during the financial year. Not to mention if tranches of pre_2020 investments are also sold at different times, and if interest rates have changed during the year

From a financial planning POV, the changes will make Investment Bonds a more attractive option for high income (highly taxed) individuals that are willing to invest for the long term. An investment bond pays tax on earnings at the company tax rate (30%), but benefits from any franking credits (so the effective tax rate is lower). And if held for 10 years or more, there is no tax payable on the gain made when the bond is sold.

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