🗞️ Open house

Good morning. There's a reason realestate.com.au seems to have every property in the country on its websites, and it's because agents were contractually required to put them all there.

REA Group has now given the ACCC a legally binding undertaking to drop those clauses for three years, after a year-long investigation into whether they were squeezing out rival platforms.

The cost of a listing had climbed about 30% in three years to as much as $4,000 for a top-tier spot in Sydney or Melbourne, and agents have long argued that bill ends up in the price of your house.

All the headlines and more below...

ATO RULING COULD ADD HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN TAX BILLS FOR APPLE, GOOGLE, MICROSOFT AND AMAZON

The Australian Taxation Office has ruled that software payments that tech companies send offshore to their own parent entities can now be taxed as royalties in Australia. Apple, Microsoft and Amazon together reported almost $30B in total income in Australia for the 2023-24 income year and paid a combined $478M in tax.

The ruling goes after how the money moves. An Australian subsidiary collects revenue from local customers, then sends a large chunk of it offshore as payment for the right to use or distribute the software. The ATO's position is that part of that offshore payment is really for intellectual property, which makes it a royalty, and royalties attract Australian withholding tax.

The US Treasury has already pushed back over a five-year consultation. Its argument is that these payments aren't royalties at all but ordinary business profits, which would make them taxable in the US instead, and it sees Australia's position as a break from international norms.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• Banks are intensifying a mortgage price war by cutting variable home loan rates for fewer customers even as the RBA signals potential cash rate rises ahead of its 29 September decision. LINK

• The federal government has scrapped the age-based boost to the private health insurance rebate, saving a little more than $3B a year as pensioners pay about $1.6B more. LINK

• The government has promoted AI and renewable-powered data centres as the key to fixing weak productivity and growth while tech firms resist strict copyright and regulatory barriers. AUS 

$29.6B IN INTEREST PAYMENTS NOW EATS 3.6% OF ALL FEDERAL TAX REVENUE

Australians will spend $29.6B servicing the national debt this financial year, which is already more than the federal government spends on public schools, the Australian Army or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. One taxpayer's ATO receipt showed $1,050 of what they paid went to interest on government debt, more than went to general public services, transport or foreign aid. It's forecast to reach $42.3 billion by FY2030, eating 6.2% of all federal revenue, as the debt itself climbs toward $2 trillion or 58% of GDP, just past the pandemic peak.

During the pandemic, state governments locked in hundreds of billions at interest rates below 3%. As those loans roll over, $226.5B will need refinancing at current rates around 5.5%, adding roughly $8.1B a year in extra interest costs. Combined federal and state debt is expected to double, reaching $2 trillion by decade's end, while state revenues are falling as the property market correction cuts stamp duty receipts in New South Wales and Queensland.

Australia's debt-to-GDP ratio remains lower than Japan's 207%, the US's 124% or the UK's 102%, and the country still holds a triple-A credit rating. The Parliamentary Budget Office forecasts combined federal and state debt will top $2 trillion by the end of this decade.

COMPANY NEWS

• NAB and ANZ have cut senior leaders and about 560 staff respectively as they simplify structures and prepare for a weakening economy and AI disruption. CB

• Coles has launched a new Collect for Christmas Flybuys campaign allowing members to redeem up to $400 in points at Coles and Liquorland between December 11-24. LINK

• Healthscope’s lenders have approved the sale of its 25 hospitals to a Calvary Health Care-led consortium, ending 16 months of uncertainty after the debt-laden group’s collapse. LINK

• Reliance Worldwide has begun a 30-day ‘go shop’ process to seek rival bids to Brookfield’s $3.6B, $4.75-per-share offer as AustralianSuper lifts its stake to 14.68%. AUS

• Telix Pharmaceuticals has secured FDA approval for Pixclara as the first US-cleared brain cancer imaging drug, enabling more precise monitoring of recurrent or progressive glioma in patients. LINK

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CHART OF THE DAY

iPhone users are as loyal as they come

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Editor’s Pick: Korean engineers are building a compact air purifier for Indian trains, aiming to strip fine dust from carriages where levels run extremely high.

Draft Pick: Les Kiss has picked an uncapped 22-year-old over Wallabies veterans James O’Connor and Bernard Foley for the Springboks Test.

Doctor’s Pick: What just 11 more minutes of sleep a night could mean for your heart health?

TRIVIA

What connects the 4 clues above?

Answer below

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ANSWER

Each of the clues describes ‘one stone’.

• In German, ‘Einstein’ literally means ‘one stone’ (‘Ein’ = one, ‘Stein’ = stone).

• A monolith is defined as one large stone.

• 6.350 kilograms is the equivalent weight of ‘one stone’.

• According to the famous idiom, you can kill two birds with one stone.

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