Tomorrow night, you’ll open the fridge and realise you never did the meal prep you promised yourself you’d do.

Now you’re paying $34 for Uber Eats instead.

Somewhere in Canberra, the government’s about to break a few promises too. And those ones will probably cost you more than a $34 pad thai.

It’s federal budget time. Or to be more precise, at 7:30pm AEST, it will be. And it’s kinda a big deal. Like rumoured to be the most significant budget in a decade, kinda big.

Think of it like your personal budget, but for the entire Australian economy.

Instead of having ‘rent’ and ‘restaurants’ as expenses, the government has the ‘health care system’ and ‘housing affordability’’ to account for.

A huge chunk of what funds it comes straight from YOUR pay cheque. Wouldn't you like to know where it's going? Plus, a big portion of government spending  often goes back into supporting everyday Australians (you) through different incentives, subsidies, and making essential services more affordable!

So yeah, worth knowing about before Wednesday morning's office chat.

Here's what's expected to drop, without giving it all away:

💸 Taxes

• They say the only things certain in life are death and taxes, but HOW Aussies get taxed is constantly up for debate. And this year? A trio of tax reforms is probably what you’ll be hearing about most. The budget will feature changes to the capital gains tax discount, negative gearing and the taxation of trust funds.
• There could also be an offset that means getting taxed less on what you earn (but this is all just speculation rn).

🏠 Housing Affordability

• Those trio of taxes (capital gains, negative gearing & taxing trust funds) all feed directly into how affordable homes are. That’s what makes this budget so major.
• It’ll impact everything from rental prices, to house builds, to your ability to buy a home. The government's basically saying it's trying to make things fairer for young Aussies… But it could end up nudging up rental prices, according to experts.
• This is all a super big deal because the government PROMISED pre-election it wouldn’t be making any changes to negative gearing and CGT.

🩺Healthcare and Medicare

• There’s no perfect healthcare system but in Australia we generally have it pretty good, with a wide range of fully and partially subsidised medications and healthcare services.
• One expected change is that millions of older Australians will have to pay the same amount as younger Australians for private health insurance, again, to make things fairer between generations (I’m sensing a theme here).

📚 Fuel Security and Defence

With the Middle East conflict dominating headlines, it's no surprise these areas are getting serious attention in this budget. What that means practically for you: changes to fuel excise tax, fertilizer security and public transport spending that could show up directly in your petrol bill and your weekly grocery shop.

💸 EVs

• Speaking of fuel (or lack thereof)... if an EV has been on your radar, listen up. The government is starting to wind back the tax discount on electric vehicles bought through a novated lease. Something worth watching if that's been part of your savings plan.  

👶 Social Welfare and Support Systems

• Australia has some pretty solid support systems like pensions, unemployment benefits, childcare, the NDIS. But some of those are facing a serious clampdown in this budget. Thousands of Australians are set to be kicked off the NDIS  in what is essentially a major cost cutting move.
• Worth being across if you or someone you know relies on any of these systems.

🚂 Infrastructure and Public Services

• Part of the budget allocates money to improving roads, public transport, utilities and other public services. If you have some beef with your local commute (don’t we all), you can keep an ear out to see if there are any plans for this to change.

And if all this tea STILL hasn’t convinced you to tune into the announcement on Tuesday night, keep an eye out for Flux’s federal budget winners & losers update instead!