The 2026–27 Federal Budget delivered tax cuts, healthcare and aged-care investment, business reform, and structural changes to property and trust taxation. Use the interactive explorer below to filter to your situation.
Plain-English summaries with the actual start dates, the announced detail, and a clear next step for each measure — from Mark Kilroy, Chartered Quantity Surveyor and author of the HOLD System.
Here's what it means for you.
This Budget had something for almost everyone — five rounds of tax cuts for workers, permanent instant asset write-off for small business, $25B extra for hospitals, $3.7B for aged care, and structural changes to property and trust taxation that take effect from 2027 and 2028.
But the headlines move fast and most coverage doesn't connect the announcement to your actual situation. The Explorer below does that work for you. Pick your situation, see only the measures that affect you, and know what to do about each one.
Tap a category to filter the Budget down to the measures that actually affect you.
Showing 21 measures
A new permanent annual offset of up to $250 for over 13 million workers. Lifts the effective tax-free threshold by nearly $1,800. 97% of recipients get the full amount.
The 16% rate on income between $18,201 and $45,000 drops to 15% from 1 July 2026, then to 14% from 1 July 2027. Up to $268 per year, then up to $536 per year.
Claim a flat $1,000 work-expense deduction without keeping receipts. 6.2 million workers benefit, average tax saving ~$205. Simpler tax time.
The flat 50% capital gains tax discount is replaced with an inflation-based discount plus a 30% minimum tax on real gains. Investors in new builds can choose between the old or new arrangement.
From 1 July 2027, only new-build purchases (made after 12 May 2026) can deduct rental losses against wages. Established stock bought after Budget night can only deduct losses against rental income.
Properties held before Budget night are protected. Both negative gearing and the 50% CGT discount continue to apply unchanged for existing holdings.
Small businesses with turnover up to $10 million can immediately deduct eligible assets costing less than $20,000 — now permanent. Estimated $890m cash-flow benefit over five years.
Eligible companies that make a loss can use it to claim a refund against tax paid in the prior two income years. ~85,000 companies benefit, mostly small businesses.
Start-ups in their first two years get refunds for tax losses up to the value of FBT and withholding tax paid on wages. Up to 25,000 young companies benefit each year.
ESVCLP and VCLP programs updated to align with modern company valuations. More capital and industry knowledge for start-ups and high-growth businesses.
Higher offsets for core experimental R&D (intensity threshold drops to 1.5%). Refundable offset turnover threshold rises to $50m. Maximum expenditure cap raised to $200m.
Businesses can opt in to monthly PAYG instalments. Expanded ATO dynamic instalments pilot. Smoother cash-flow as conditions change.
A 30% minimum tax applies to discretionary trusts with some exceptions. Three years of rollover relief from 1 July 2027 to allow restructuring.
$11.4B invested in bulk-billing incentives. Since reforms began Nov 2025, 1,420 mixed-billing practices became fully bulk billing. National GP bulk-billing rate now 81.4%.
$1.8B to make Urgent Care Clinics a permanent Medicare feature. 137 clinics nationwide, ~3 million free visits delivered. By July 2026, 4 in 5 Australians within a 20-min drive.
Additional $25B for public hospitals — total $220.3B over five years under the renewed National Health Reform Agreement. Dedicated First Nations funding schedule.
$1.7B to incentivise construction of up to 5,000 aged care beds annually. Includes new capital subsidies, 20 additional Specialist Dementia Care units, and expansion of the Hospital to Aged Care Dementia Support program.
$1B to fully subsidise personal care services like showering through the Support at Home program — co-contributions removed. $389.8m to accelerate package release.
Local housing infrastructure funding to enable up to 65,000 additional new homes. Plus reforms to support 75,000 more homeowners and faster environmental and foreign investment approvals.
Permanent 25% FBT discount for eligible EVs over $75,000 from 1 April 2027, and for all eligible EVs from 1 April 2029. EVs up to $75,000 keep the full FBT exemption if arrangement starts before 1 April 2029.
Australia building reserves to 50 days of diesel and jet fuel. $7.5B Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, $3.2B Australian Fuel Security Reserve. Strengthens domestic refining.
The two biggest property changes only affect some investors. Find your situation below.
Rental losses offset wages and other income for any property type.
New builds: losses still offset wages.
Established: losses only offset rental income; carry forward.
Flat 50% discount on capital gains for assets held over 12 months.
New builds: choose 50% discount or new inflation-based regime.
Established: inflation-based discount + 30% minimum tax on real gain.
Properties held before 12 May 2026 are grandfathered. The new rules only apply to purchases from Budget night onwards.
Most investors do not fail because they bought the wrong asset. They fail because pressure builds during the holding phase and no one helps them see it early. This Budget changed the holding-phase rules for any future purchase of established stock — directly.
The HOLD framework is the structured way to read what's changed for your specific asset, your structure, and the next 12–24 months of decisions.
Can the asset be held under the new rules?
Where assumptions no longer match reality.
Where money is being lost quietly.
Which decisions matter before 1 July 2027.
Three pieces published in the lead-up to Budget night that frame why this set of changes lands the way it does.
Every measure summarised here is drawn directly from the official 2026–27 Federal Budget Papers released by the Treasury on 12 May 2026. The plain-English read, persona filtering and dates are mine; the underlying announcements are theirs.
Plain-English answers to the questions Australians are bringing to their accountants this week.
Five tax cuts in total: a new $250 Working Australians Tax Offset from 2027–28, the 16% bracket cut to 15% from 1 July 2026 and to 14% from 1 July 2027, and a $1,000 instant tax deduction with no receipts required. An average earner is up to $2,816 better off per year by 2027–28 compared with 2023–24 settings.
Beyond tax cuts: 9 in 10 GP visits to be bulk billed by 2030, 137 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics made permanent, $25B extra for public hospitals, infrastructure to support 65,000 new homes, and a $14.8B Fuel Resilience Package to stabilise prices through future supply shocks.
From 1 July 2027, negative gearing is limited to new builds and the 50% CGT discount is replaced with an inflation-based discount plus a 30% minimum tax on real gains. Properties held before 12 May 2026 are grandfathered — both rules continue unchanged for existing investors.
The $20,000 instant asset write-off is now permanent (turnover up to $10m). Loss carry-back returns from 2026–27, with refunds against tax paid in the prior two years. Loss refundability arrives for start-ups in their first two years from 2028–29. Plus reformed R&D incentives, expanded venture capital programs, and optional monthly PAYG instalments.
$3.7B aged care investment: $1.7B to build up to 5,000 new aged care beds per year, $1B to remove personal care co-contributions under Support at Home, and an additional $565.1m for sector quality and safety. Plus more bulk billing and accelerated Support at Home package release.
Yes. From 1 July 2028, a 30% minimum tax applies to discretionary trusts with some exceptions. Three years of rollover relief is available from 1 July 2027 to allow small businesses and others to restructure. If you hold property or business assets in a discretionary trust, this is a structural decision window.
Almost certainly yes — but the draft legislation needs to confirm it. The Budget Papers say investors who buy established housing after Budget night can carry forward unused rental losses, but explicitly only allow them to be deducted against 'residential property income', not wages. The Papers are silent on the CGT event at sale. The most likely legislative outcome is that carried-forward losses can be deducted against the assessable net capital gain on sale — consistent with how revenue losses already work, and consistent with the Treasurer's framing that the policy targets wage offset rather than trapping losses inside the asset. If that holds, the depreciation value is fully preserved: Division 40 deductions you couldn't use against wages each year get banked and applied against the gain at sale. The alternative — losses ring-fenced to rental income only with no offset against the gain — would materially shift the post-2027 economics of established stock and would hit high-Division 40 properties (typically newer dwellings) hardest. This is the single most important detail to watch in the draft Bill.
The full FBT exemption for EVs up to $75,000 continues if the arrangement starts before 1 April 2029. After that, all eligible EVs move to a permanent 25% FBT discount. EVs over $75,000 transition earlier — to the 25% FBT discount from 1 April 2027.
Use the Budget Explorer above — pick your situation and the page filters to the measures that affect you. For property investors, the HOLD Review applies the framework to one specific asset and models pre-Budget vs post-1 July 2027 settings.