Better Call Paul: What's coming in the budget in 2026

For twenty years the ecom playbook has been the same.

Build the business. Scale the business. Sell the business. Pocket the cash.

Step three just got expensive.

Monday night's Budget didn't make the ecommerce headlines. It should have. Because the maths on selling just changed. So did the maths on holding property, taking dividends, and distributing through your trust.

Every lever the smart founders pull just shifted.

So change the play.

The old question was: how do I scale this thing to a big exit?

The new question is: how do I make this bastard pay me. Properly. Now.

1. Selling the business

From July 2027 the 50% CGT discount is gone. In its place, the government strips inflation out of your starting cost, then taxes the rest at your normal rate, with a minimum of 30%.

Sarah starts her store for $200K. Sells it in 2028 for $3M.

Old rules: $658K tax bill.

New rules: $1.29M tax bill.

Same sale. $633K extra to the ATO.

2. Running it through a trust

The new CGT rules follow capital gains wherever you distribute them. Including to the low-income spouse and the adult kids.

The exception is the bucket company. A bucket company is just a company you set up to receive money from your trust. It pays company tax (usually 25%) on whatever it gets.

Bucket companies never got the 50% discount, so the new rules don't make them worse. Suddenly 25% in a bucket company beats 47% in your own name.

3. Taking dividends

Div 296 is still landing. That's the new 30% tax on super balances above $3M.

If you've been routing wins into super to dodge company tax, you need to rethink the mix of salary, dividends and contributions before EOFY.

4. Owning a rental

Negative gearing on established residential is dead from July 2027.

Bought before 7:30pm Monday May 12? You're grandfathered. Old rules still apply.

Bought after? Your rental losses no longer offset your salary or your business profit. They sit on a shelf until you sell the place or the rent goes up enough to cover costs.

Mike buys a $1M established rental next week. Costs him $20K a year. Used to get $9,400 back in tax. Now he gets nothing.

The old play of buying a brick-and-tile to soak up your store's profit is over.

The new playbook

Every one of those four hits points to the same thing.

The exit got expensive. The income didn't.

So stop building for the sale. Start building for the dividends.

Make the bastard pay you while you still own it.

Every dollar you pull out of your store today is worth more than a dollar you try to extract on sale. The Budget just guaranteed that.

Pay yourself properly. Distribute properly. Reinvest the wins in the right structure.

If your store isn't paying you what it should, or you're not sure how to refocus it on profit, book a 15 minute call with my team. we’ll tell you straight if we can help.

Click here to book a 15 min call.

Until next week, Paul

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