We’ve demolished the chocolate teddy bear biscuits and downed all of the red cordial, so that’s Budget Night over for another year. Phew! So, what did Swanny unveil for property investors this time around?

Much like last year… not a lot at all, really.

There’s a lot of words like “responsible spending” and “returning to surplus”, as we would expect, and it’s the first time in about nine years that we haven’t been offered any reduction in income tax. Some families will now get much higher family tax benefits… while others will get much less.

In fact; many of our favourite tricks have been removed. The entrepreneurs offset has been scrapped, the dependant spouse offset has been scrapped, and we can’t distribute nearly as much trust income to kids anymore as they won’t get the low income offset.

There are a few small perks added for those who own a small business (like a property development company, for example). The entrepreneurs offset might not be available, but you may be eligible for an additional $5,000 deduction on new vehicle purchases. That said, if the car is bought in a company, the fringe benefits tax will be higher for most businesses after introducing  uniform rate regardless of how many kms are travelled. Other small assets purchased for under $5,000 will be written off in full, instead of depreciated, as promised last year. Don’t go shopping just yet though; those breaks are at least another year away. Assuming the minerals resource rent tax goes ahead as planned, the company tax rate will start decreasing a little earlier than first planned instead.

Whispers around a plan to wind back and eventually abolish negative gearing have proven to be exactly that, with nothing announced tonight on that count at all. There is another tax reform meeting scheduled for later this year, so expect to hear those whispers getting louder – especially if interest rates and / or house prices increase.

For the full budget details, check out the treasury website. All in all, something of a non-event this year from a tax perspective but it will certainly be interesting to see just how close Labor gets to their predicted surplus.