Pratique du Shadowing: Why is everyone talking about an Australian 'death tax'? | The Daily Aus - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Good morning and welcome to The Daily Oz.

It's Thursday the 28th of May.

I'm Zahra Seidler.

I'm Elliot Laurie.

There's a common saying that nothing is certain in life except for death and taxes.

And so today I wanted to combine those two topics because why not?

And let's talk about a death tax.

That's right, we have heard the term death tax in the news headlines over the past few weeks

and you might be a bit confused.

Death tax.

Could be reversed with the Prime Minister considering a carve-out of his CGT changes for trusts.

In today's podcast, we're going to explain what the latest trust changes involved in this month's budget actually mean for everyday Australians.

Zara, it was two weeks ago when you and I were stuck here at TDA headquarters, poring over the budget, trying to work out what was going on.

How could we forget?

Fueled by marvellous creations.

Yeah, which you were really into, but you got the caramel flavour, which I was not that into.

Okay, sorry, Sam did that.

That wasn't me.

Anyway, we digress.

Anyway.

We needed fuel.

Not what we're talking about today.

We are talking about the budget again, even though it's been two weeks since all those details were announced.

And that's because there's been this ongoing conversation about a death tax, which the coalition has been alleging was sort of buried in the budget.

And it definitely didn't come up when we were looking at it two weeks ago.

I think a good place for us to start is with a bit of a refresher on what a trust is, because that's what this is all about, right?

Yeah, exactly.

It's so funny.

I don't think that a budget has ever had a longer tail.

Like, we are talking about something entirely new this week, which it feels like for a pretty rudimentary black and white document,

the fact that there is still stuff coming up is saying a lot.

But yes, what has emerged is this discussion about a death tax.

And that's because of changes that was proposed by the government in their budget to trust.

So put simply, a trust is a legal structure where money or assets are held on behalf of someone else.

I think popular culture has very much made trust fund babies a thing.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of, rich kids.

Yeah, which is basically that in that case, your parents have set up a trust and they are dispersing money through that vehicle for future generations.

There are tax implications for that.

And it's certainly a more favorable tax situation for people to find themselves in they lower the tax

that they're paying at that time.

So that's why it's usually held and, you know, a whole bunch of other reasons.

I'm going to pause because our producer, Aula, has a hand up.

We've been wanting her.

We got her a microphone and now we are welcoming her to the pod.

The moment has come where I have a question.

Yay!

What is it?

It might be a stupid question.

No. We wrote a whole book about this, Aula.

It's called No Silly Questions.

You should buy it, guys.

Aula hasn't read it.

Aula joined after, so we will make it a thing that she has to read it.

Yes what's the difference between a trust and a will great question

so a trust is a will is that you leave money for certain people

and that's like if someone were to die

and they leave a will for their living surviving family with what they are leaving for them that's a will

so you leave the house

or you leave whatever's in your bank account your car whatever assets you have you have to portion up

and so usually when you have children you'd make a will or if you have assets if you buy a house

kudos to you then you get to um assign

that to whoever a trust firstly when you're living

that is being used so if you set up a company

and you are getting money through that company you can start giving allocating

that to your children while you're still living but interestingly i think probably because of the death thing,

there is a distinction between a trust that is used

when you're alive and a trust that is used when you're no longer alive.

And that's actually literally the crux of what we're talking about today.

So amazing contribution, Ola.

Thank you.

That was a great debut for Ola on the mic.

It was.

Amazing.

More of that, please.

And so just to give you a sense of how often people are using trusts, one million active trusts exist in Australia.

Oh, wow.

Is that shocking to you?

Yeah, it is.

I feel like it would be one of those ones where it's like the top, top 1%, but obviously it's more common.

Yeah.

So one million trusts in use in Australia, and the government announced changes to how those trusts are going to work.

So at the moment, there's no minimum tax rate on trusts.

But under changes announced by the government, distributions from family trusts will be taxed at a minimum rate

of 30% rather than at whoever was getting its personal income tax rate.

Okay, interesting. So previously...

Does that make sense?

Yeah, previously it was determined by how much income that person was already getting in a certain financial year.

Now it's going to be at a bare minimum 30%.

Yeah, exactly.

So previously it was at your tax rate and now, you know, one way that people were trying to find workarounds for tax was that they were allocating it to,

say, 18-year-olds who didn't have an income at that point

and then they were paying no tax because they didn't have an income and no tax to thus pay.

Yes, got it.

And that was a very long way of explaining it.

But now there's that 30% minimum for anyone who is benefiting from that trust.

Okay, and I'm assuming that was to try to clamp down on people who were using it as a workaround.

Yeah, the idea is, and I guess this is the entire flavour of the government's agenda here, which is they want to create intergenerational equity.

They want to level the playing field for people so that things can't be used by, as you said, the top 1% to further their wealth,

100

but that more wealth is accessible to more Australians.

101

So that's the sort of playing field that we're dealing with right now.

102

You mentioned that it's being called a death tax, which is the part that's kind of tripping me up a little bit.

103

Like, what is this dramatic name?

104

Is that what was in the budget?

105

No, that wasn't what was in the budget.

106

I don't think the government would have ever called it that.

107

So the reason that this name has arisen is because these changes also apply to something called a testamentary trust.

108

My favourite kind.

109

Yeah, this thing that we've all heard heaps about before.

110

Basically, a testamentary trust is used to distribute a person's assets after they die.

111

Hence, Ola's excellently timed question.

112

And it can remain in place and include lots of generations.

113

So what I think I need to establish before we talk about how this term has come about is

114

that we're not talking here about being taxed when the person dies.

115

We're talking about still just when that money is dispersed to the beneficiaries.

116

And so one is called an inheritance tax.

117

And that's like basically when you inherit the assets, then you're taxed.

118

We don't have that in Australia.

119

Nobody is proposing that.

120

What the government is proposing is that these types of trusts

121

that apply when people die and live on when they have passed,

122

that those will attract the same 30% minimum as the other types of trusts that we were talking about earlier.

123

Okay.

124

Interesting.

125

Yeah.

126

And so under Labor's proposal, these changes, like the other changes we've heard about, negative gearing, CGT, they'll be grandfathered,

127

meaning they will only apply to new trusts, not to existing trusts. Is this on?

128

It's Billy from TDA, and we are wondering if you can hit subscribe to help this channel grow.

129

Now, back to the video.

130

Okay, so just to be clear, this isn't officially called a death tax.

131

No, that term came from The Australian.

132

So that's News Corp's big paper.

133

They first reported that the government had introduced this very sly death tax

134

and then the coalition obviously in opposition kind of took it

135

and ran with it it's not the first time we've heard

136

this sort of language i think that's why people who would

137

have read this would have been like i swear i've heard

138

this before in 2019 the coalition ran a campaign saying

139

that labor was going to introduce a death tax at

140

that point there were no changes being announced there was nothing to do with trusts.

141

There was nothing to do with inheritance tax.

142

But that campaign really stuck.

143

I think when people hear death tax, they freak out that all of their assets, when they pass, are going to go to the government.

144

But that's not what happened in 2019.

145

And I guess the government has been trying to make a very clear point that they don't think that's what's happening now.

146

Okay.

147

So then what What would be the motivation for the coalition calling it a death tax and the Australian

148

bringing this term into sort of the public consciousness?

149

Well, I guess it's an evocative way to talk about quite rudimentary changes to trusts.

150

Like we said, trusts aren't something that we're necessarily talking about, thinking about unless you're the beneficiary of one.

151

And so we've had the coalition suggest that Labor buried this, that this was something that, you know, because there was such big changes

152

that this was like one small line in their budget and that they were trying to keep it on the down low.

153

We've seen the coalition launch a petition against the changes, saying again that they were hidden.

154

And this time they've labelled Labor's trust change a 30% inheritance tax, so that goes to the 30%,

155

targeting popular family trust structures used by everyday Australians to save, invest and pass on assets to their children.

156

I was reading Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson's press release about this

157

because the coalition have been going very hard on him he

158

said the albanese government has hidden a 30 death tax easter egg in their bad faith budget

159

and was hoping they could sneak their assault on family savings

160

past australians i do have to add his press release then

161

went on to explain what an easter egg was it says an easter egg in popular culture is a secret

162

that was deliberately hidden

163

and requires effort to find i don't think he knows not taylor swift fans in tim wilson's office

164

if and they think we need that explained.

165

But I guess that gives you a sense of how the coalition is framing it, which is I think that this is very evocative language that Australians resonate with.

166

They've seen it work in 2019 when they ran this sort of campaign then.

167

Obviously, the coalition won that campaign.

168

They won that election.

169

And here they're suggesting that we could be facing a death tax yet again.

170

Yeah.

171

I don't think Tim Wilson knows what an Easter egg is.

172

I think it's meant to be something joyous or exciting

173

or something like a little yeah like a little treat

174

that you find buried in there yeah not something

175

that they're alleging is going to negatively affect a lot of

176

Australians you also mentioned in one of those quotes there

177

that it's a really popular solution for they said a lot

178

of Australians how popular is it like how many people are

179

accessing these kind of trusts the testamentary one sorry I just had to remember how to pronounce

180

that word um that one is not as popular as all trusts, obviously.

181

So according to ATO data, there are around 10,500 of these types of trusts.

182

So it's about 0.1% of taxpayers.

183

Yeah, tiny percentage of the population when you put it into perspective like that.

184

Yeah, it is.

185

But again, the broader idea of a tax vehicle being used is much more popular and is being used far more widely.

186

Okay, so we've heard what the coalition has to say about this.

187

What has the government actually said about the death tax?

188

Well, I mean, they've been at great pains to try and deconstruct that sort of language and suggest that, no, that's not what they're trying to do.

189

Again, they're saying this is not a tax on inheritance.

190

This is just a tax in the same way anything else in a trust is taxed.

191

They have, however, hinted to some newspapers, we saw in the Sydney Morning Herald, that they could be considering reversing this policy for testamentary trusts.

192

It's unclear, and certainly this hasn't been confirmed by the government, it's unclear if the campaign is just getting very loud

193

and they want to stop it or if through consultation they've realised

194

that this isn't the policy that needs to affect all trusts.

195

So what we do know is that they are pushing ahead with the CGT and negative gearing legislation first.

196

So that's happening, I think, as soon as this week.

197

And the trust legislation will be separate and that will come later.

198

So they'll have a bit more time to play around with what's actually included in this legislation

199

and whether these testamentary trusts that have attracted the label of, you know, a death tax will actually be made into law.

200

Because right now, it's just a proposed change.

201

Yeah, that's because everything in the budget is kind of just an idea

202

or a proposal and then it does need to still go through the traditional legislative process.

203

Exactly and I mean I guess we can get a pretty good indication from what we've heard from the coalition

204

that they wouldn't necessarily support the trust changes.

205

We do know that the government does need either the coalition

206

or some of the crossbench to support them in order for legislation to pass the upper house

207

so that could be another reason I guess

208

that perhaps they know they need the numbers

209

but the prime minister's office didn't confirm those reports to us they told tda

210

that the budget measures would just be introduced as legislation

211

and basically said you wait

212

and you see no special information for you okay no spoilers from the government no easter eggs

213

that was so boomer of me um

214

but yeah look i think it's a really interesting topic more

215

so i think

216

when you think about how language is used in politics certainly

217

this was never referred to in the budget papers as a death tax

218

or an inheritance tax

219

and i think it's interesting to to understand how language can

220

be used in heightened environments where where people are already feeling

221

sensitive about you know the budget some people agree with it others disagree with it

222

and this language appears to be cutting through so much

223

so i guess that we're talking about it today

224

and people have asked us today we can explain it yeah

225

great branding exercise from the coalition we'll have to take notes zara thank you

226

so much for explaining that to us thank you Thank you, Elliot.

227

I believe it's time for the titbit.

228

I'm looking expectantly at you, hoping you have one because I completely forgot to come with one today.

229

Zara, you're lucky that we've been working together long enough that I know you.

230

Yeah, so much so that you called me your grandmother the other day.

231

Let the record reflect. But anyway.

232

But also I know that my grandmother is sometimes forgetful of these things, so I did come prepared with a titbit.

233

Alright, hit me.

234

What is it?

235

about a share house in Esperance in WA where they went to make steak

236

and salad for dinner and one of the housemates has gone

237

and opened up the lettuce and there's a fully live frog in the top of it.

238

So this is just a regular bag of lettuce that they got from Woolies.

239

It's so funny.

240

There's a video of it that they posted online.

241

The reason that this story is so interesting is it got such crazy international media attention.

242

The Associated Press actually picked it up and interviewed these people in WA.

243

It's so distinctly Australian.

244

It's so distinctly Australian.

245

And the bit that I loved in it was one of the housemates said, oh, I thought he was taking the mick when he said there was a frog in the lettuce,

246

but AP had to include a translation about what that means.

247

Oh my God, I love it.

248

Can I just say in my old apartment, I was trying to find something under my bed.

249

I dropped like a bobby pin under my bed and I like reached out and I saw something move.

250

And I was like, oh, what's that?

251

A full frog.

252

A full frog in Sydney in the middle of the day

253

and just ribbit ribbit ribbit its way out and I freaked out

254

and screamed and ran to the other side of the apartment.

255

Really?

256

That's so chill.

257

Okay, I was not expecting to see a frog under my bed.

258

Like what else is there?

259

That's like a messed up fairy tale.

260

It's like Princess and the Pig.

261

But like not fun.

262

Anyway, so I resonate deeply with these people, but they sound way more fun and chill about it than I was.

263

They were super chill.

264

They even got to the point that they politely escorted the frog out to a pond nearby.

265

That's a much better person than I am.

266

They gave it a send-off by playing Crazy Frog as it hopped into the pond.

267

And on that note, we are going to give you a send-off by playing Crazy Frog.

268

And that's all we have time for today.

269

Enjoy the dulcet tones of Crazy Frog, and we'll see you later today.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Pratique du Shadowing: Why is everyone talking about an Australian 'death tax'? | The Daily Aus - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

About This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Practice Tips

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?