Simon Biddle

FINAL: Phillies 2, #RedSox 1

‘Blindsided’: Start-up anger grows over CGT changes afr.com/technology/bli… The government’s proposed massive doubling of capital gains tax will be a disaster for Australian innovation and venture. Tech founders and investors will leave Australia in droves. With the Aconex sale to Oracle for $1.6b, around $400m in tax was paid in Australia by the shareholders of Aconex. If I were paying double the current capital gains tax, I for one, would have stayed in Silicon Valley, rather than coming back to Australia to list Aconex on the ASX. On the sale to Oracle, I would have paid all my capital gains tax in the US, not Australia. Overtaxing capital gains in venture capital will simple force founders, entrepreneurs, execs and investors to leave Australia for lower tax countries such as the US. The whole country loses, with less investment, less innovation, less jobs, less wealth creation and ultimately less tax paid in Australia. This is what you get when you have a treasurer (and nearly 100% of the government) that has never taken the risk to start a company, or been anywhere near business in their life.