Multi-millionaire businessman Ruslan Kogan has unleashed on controversial tax changes, warning that without rewards for entrepreneurs, Australia risks attracting migrants motivated by “sick NDIS scams” and the welfare system.
Mr Kogan, the founder and CEO of Kogan.com with a net worth estimated at $575 million, weighed in on the debate on Thursday after proposed changes to capital gains tax (CGT) sparked massive backlash from Aussie business owners and investors.
“When it comes to taxes, I don’t care if it’s a 90 per cent tax, as long as it’s actually making the country better for our children and giving us a better place to live in the future,” the entrepreneur said in an impromptu video that garnered almost 9 million views online.
Mr Kogan compared a nation’s culture to that of a company, arguing that organisational culture is shaped over time by the people who are hired, fired and promoted.
“When they talk about massively increasing taxes and the CGT, you are incentivising the wrong message. You’re not saying, ‘Take a risk, come here, have a crack’,” he said.
“Aussie culture has been all about working hard, taking risks, having a crack, and you’re going to be incentivising the wrong sort of people to come here.”
Mr Kogan, who was born in Belarus and moved to Melbourne with his parents in 1989, suggested Australia now risked attracting migrants for the wrong reasons.
“If you’re going to say, ‘The rewards for building something, for employing people, for contributing to society are going to be less, and there are going to be more handouts, more government intervention, more government jobs, welfare — who are you going to attract to come to the country?” he asked.
“We don’t want people looking at Australia and going, ‘You know what? There’s some great opportunity for some really sick NDIS scams; there’s a really great welfare system; that’s the sort of country that I want to come to.”
Mr Kogan said a lot of successful business owners in Australia were immigrants and if the government sent a message that they weren’t really wanted, “they will leave”.
“You have to just look around the world to see what’s happened in other jurisdictions where similar policies have been put into place.
“On one hand, I agree Australia’s a bloody good country and it would take a lot to make people leave. But on the other hand, trajectory matters a lot.”
Aussies tee off in ‘rushed’ consultation
Mr Ruslan’s message came after Australians slammed Mr Albanese’s bid to introduce the “highest capital gains tax in the world” in submissions for a “rushed” public consultation that lasted less than two weeks.
A Senate inquiry into the government’s controversial new law changing the CGT discount and negative gearing kicked off on May 28.
Public consultations for Senate inquiries generally last four to eight weeks, but submissions on the bill will close on Tuesday, allowing 12 days and covering the King’s Birthday long weekend.
Some Aussies fumed about the quick turnaround in their submissions, suggesting the Albanese government was trying to ram the changes through before parliament’s winter break.
“What a bloody joy it is to be spending a public holiday hastily scribbling this submission against yet another tax grab, with submissions due the day after a long weekend,” one wrote.
What are the tax changes?
The government’s proposed changes in the May budget include replacing the 50 per cent CGT discount with an indexation model for almost all assets.
After July 2027, Aussies who sell shares, businesses or farmland will have to pay CGT of at least 30 per cent on their indexed capital gain, or their marginal tax rate of up to 47 per cent.
Previously, they would have been eligible for the 50 per cent discount if they held those assets for more than a year.
Negative gearing for property investments will also be limited to new builds, with properties held before budget night exempt.
The changes are included in the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2026, which has passed the House of Representatives but must still pass the Senate, where Labor will require crossbench support following the inquiry’s final report on June 22.
Read related topics:Anthony Albanese