What’s this 47% equity thing doing the rounds that just sounds incorrect?

There was an ABC News Daily episode on this recently. It sounds incorrect because it is, the 47% figure applies to a tiny minority and basically no one that is complaining about it.

Here’s an excerpt from an SBS News article that also debunks it:

Independent economist Saul Eslake said the suggestion that reforms would somehow make the government or the prime minister a 47 per cent shareholder in every business is “completely fictitious”.

“What you pay capital gains tax on is the increase in the value of assets which you own when you sell them,” he explained to SBS News.

"Under the changes the government is proposing, Australians will get relief from the impact of inflation on the cost base of those assets.

“And in fact, for many assets, including shares and units, the system of capital gains taxation which the government will be bringing into effect from one July next year is actually more concessional than the 50 per cent discount that’s applied to capital gains since 1999 when it was changed by John Howard and Peter Costello,” he said.

“That system has primarily benefited investors in houses whose prices have risen on average over the period since then by about 7.5 per cent a year, which is more than double the inflation rate, which has averaged just under 3 per cent per annum over that period.”