Entrepreneurial Australians may be lured abroad to New Zealand or the United States after the federal government overhauled the tax treatment for investments, business owners warn.
NZ finance minister Nicola Willis may have been tongue-in-cheek when she recently invited Aussies to hop across the ditch – where there is no comprehensive capital gains tax (CGT) – but business owners may be seriously considering the move.
Founders say scrapping the 50 per cent CGT discount, which will drastically reduce profits for some business owners who decide to sell, is the death knell for Australia's start-up culture.
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Victorian Hydrogen & Ammonia Industries Limited founder Allan Blood decided to shift his proposed $3 billion coal-to-fertiliser plant from Victoria's Latrobe Valley to Southland, NZ this year after claiming the state government refused to support or help coordinate the project.
Blood's investors backed his lofty ambition to move the operation to NZ, a country he said is a "different world" to Australia.
"We just got sick of it and we've moved over here where the government is welcoming... just you can't imagine how strong the assistance, the friendliness and the facilitation has been," Blood told nine.com.au.
"The government wants to make things happen in NZ. They don't want to inhibit things."
Blood's decision was not inspired by the CGT discount changes.
But he warns other business owners, particularly young start-up founders, may see the writing on the wall and follow in his footsteps.
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"It would absolutely be a smart move... the system here is better," he said.
"They can facilitate that without having to offer any money or incentives.
"It's only a couple of hours from Melbourne or Sydney. Communication is easy, and in the world today with IT, you can run a business equally as well from NZ as you can from Australia."
Blood said he is even considering floating his company on the NZX instead of the ASX in the wake of the federal budget.
He warned the Australian government is "flying in the face of what they want to achieve" by doubling down on taxes.
"That really was the sort of death kick... we were going to list our company in Australia, we may now consider having the primary listing here in NZ," Blood added.
"From the standpoint of our investors, they would be far better off here than in Australia."
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Killing Australia's entrepreneurial spirit
Bill Ovenden, the co-founder of Queensland bed sheet brand The Lad Collective, believes changing the CGT discount will stifle Australian entrepreneurship.
Australia has been the breeding ground some of the world's most successful tech giants, including billion-dollar outfits Atlassian and Canva.
Ovenden is concerned the local start-up industry will shrink and entrepreneurial spirit will fade over the next few years.
"I feel like these sorts of sweeping taxation reforms are enough to sort of stop really smart, talented people with good ideas in their tracks," Ovenden said.
"We have an awesome community of entrepreneurs here in Australia, but there are other countries out there that really need and want the talent that Australia produces.
"I can see a massive shift off-shore, primarily NZ."
Ovenden said bootstrapped founders deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labour - but some higher-valued companies face up to 47 per cent capital gains tax.
NZ may be a natural fit for many future Australian business owners who want to avoid this tax altogether.
"They need to be rewarded for the hard work they put in," he said.
"Even in a place like NZ – sure, it might not have as many people, but I do think that their government is far more supportive from a taxation standpoint."
If there is a mass exodus of deep-pocketed investors and founders to NZ or the US, Australia could miss out on billions of dollars that will instead be pumped off-shore.
The co-founder of Melbourne start-up QSIC, Matthew Elsey, who now lives in the US, agrees that fellow Australian founders will now be rethinking the geography of their next venture.
"This is a sad state of affairs. It is part of the Aussie spirit to have a crack and give it a go. Jim is getting us going all right. Going overseas," he said in a post on LinkedIn.
"If you're optimising for success and you look at this tax treatment, you now need to be way more successful in Australia to achieve the same outcome you could overseas.
"In an industry where most businesses fail, no one will take that risk."
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