{"id":11192,"date":"2026-05-14T08:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/11192\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:07:13","slug":"budget-2026-dozens-of-politicians-set-to-be-hit-by-new-tax-on-trusts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/11192\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2026: Dozens of politicians set to be hit by new tax on trusts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

Updated May 14, 2026 \u2014 5:08pm,first published 11:52am<\/p>\n

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Dozens of federal politicians are set to be hit by the Albanese government\u2019s biggest new revenue raiser in this year\u2019s budget: the plan to introduce a 30 per cent minimum tax on discretionary trusts.<\/p>\n

Almost one in three members of parliament \u2013 around 70 in total \u2013 have disclosed that they or a family member have at least one form of trust, with Coalition MPs the most likely to use a trust as an investment vehicle.<\/p>\n

\"QueenslandQueensland MP Andrew Willcox is federal parliament\u2019s biggest user of trusts.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

Nationals MP Andrew Willcox is easily the biggest user of trusts in parliament, listing an interest in 17 trusts in his parliamentary register.<\/p>\n

Labor MP Libby Coker lists an interest in seven trusts, Liberal MP Rick Wilson lists six and independent MP Allegra Spender five.<\/p>\n

Spender said she supported the government\u2019s efforts to reduce tax concessions for trusts, as well as capital gains tax and negative gearing, to make the system fairer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is evidence it is being used for income splitting, and for most people this is not an option,\u201d Spender said.<\/p>\n

She added that she did not expect to make any changes to her personal financial affairs as a result of the changes.<\/p>\n

But Spender, whose Sydney seat of Wentworth is one of the country\u2019s wealthiest electorates, added that she wanted to see more detail about the proposal and consult her constituents to ensure it did not punish people who made investment decisions in good faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to strike the right balance between fairness and predictability,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"VictorianVictorian MP Libby Coker has declared seven trusts on her register of interests. Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

Willcox, Coker and Wilson did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The introduction of the minimum rate on discretionary trusts is expected to save the budget $4.4 billion in a single year after they are introduced in 2028 \u2013 more than the $3.5 billion set to be raised from changes to negative gearing and capital gains.<\/p>\n

Around 840,000 discretionary trusts exist in Australia, and they have been commonly used to move income from a high-earning family member to a partner out of work or a child at university.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers do not list any involvement with trusts in their declarations of interest.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, discretionary trusts allow some Australians, often high wealth individuals and families, to plan their tax affairs in ways that aren\u2019t available to most people,\u201d Chalmers, Albanese and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2022-23, on average, families with discretionary trusts faced an average tax rate around 4 percentage points lower compared with families on similar incomes that don\u2019t use trusts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor lists at least four corporate entities and family trusts on his register of interests.<\/p>\n

Asked about his use of trusts on Thursday, Taylor branded the government\u2019s policy \u201ca tax on small businesses\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are people who get up every day at early hours, work incredibly hard all day, usually and very often, at least, it\u2019s the whole family involved,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so that structure is absolutely appropriate for that situation, and I think it should stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe opposition leader lists two family trusts on his register of interests. Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

An analysis conducted by this masthead<\/a> of the register of members\u2019 interests last year found that 41 of the House of Representatives\u2019 151 members have declared holding at least one trust.<\/p>\n

Fifty members of the lower house have a trust that is either held jointly with their partner or is in their partner\u2019s name or for a child.<\/p>\n

Labor MP David Smith lists four trusts, the same number as Liberal frontbenchers Ted O\u2019Brien and Susan McDonald. Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic lists one trust alongside three personal businesses.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Marija<\/a><\/p>\n

Nineteen of 76 senators in the upper house \u2013 or a quarter \u2013 list a trust, including independent senator David Pocock and Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May.<\/p>\n

Under the government\u2019s changes, farming income will be exempt from the new 30 per cent minimum tax, a move welcomed by the National Farmers Federation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamily farms are generational businesses built over decades and often represent a family\u2019s life savings and retirement plan. We are pleased the Government has listened,\u201d National Farmers Federation President Hamish McIntyre said.<\/p>\n

Deceased estates and existing testamentary trusts are also exempt from the new policy, but not distributions from new discretionary testamentary trusts.<\/p>\n

Holding Redlich tax partner Dhanushka Jayawardena said the government\u2019s changes had removed the tax advantage of using discretionary trusts over companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith both vehicles now sitting at or around 30 per cent, and small business companies sitting below that at 25 per cent, the case for a discretionary trust collapses to non-tax considerations. Asset protection and succession planning remain valid reasons to choose a trust. Tax efficiency is no longer one of them,\u201d Jayawardena said.<\/p>\n

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\"MatthewMatthew Knott<\/a> is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated May 14, 2026 \u2014 5:08pm,first published 11:52am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21],"class_list":{"0":"post-11192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}