Federal government tax reforms targeting foreign-owned wind, solar and battery assets won’t be retrospective, industry has learned, but investor groups say there is still a lot to dislike about the proposal.
The Albanese government is pushing ahead with its proposal to extend the 30 per cent capital gains tax (CGT) to include large-scale renewables, with legislation introduced to federal Parliament on Thursday.
The changes were foreshadowed in last year’s federal budget and a draft released in April, proposing a range of reforms broadening the types of assets subject to CGT for foreign investors, which most controversially would be retrospective.
The new rules, however, don’t make the tax retrospective for renewables, and clarify what kinds of batteries are included. They also retain the original idea to offer a 50 per cent discount on the tax for the next four years.
But the four-year discount window and lack of grandfathering, which would have allowed current projects to be sold under the same tax terms as they’d been bought, are causing dismay.
