Our regular round-up of Noel Whittaker's latest writing — this time from the August 2026 issue of his Noel News newsletter.
Most of us assume tax follows money: you sell something, you bank a profit, you pay tax on it. In his August newsletter, Noel Whittaker looks at a Victorian tax that breaks that link — and explains why every property owner should be paying attention.
Victoria's Windfall Gains Tax is triggered not by a sale, but by a rezoning that lifts the value of your land on paper. You might have no intention of selling. You might not have received a single dollar. A tax liability arises all the same. Many landowners can defer payment until the property is eventually sold, but the debt doesn't go away — it sits embedded in the property, waiting.
Noel's deeper concern is the precedent. He points to the Federal Government's failed attempt to tax unrealised gains in superannuation through the proposed Division 296 changes on balances above $3 million. The proposal was defeated, he notes, but the underlying principle has not gone away.
"Once governments accept the idea of taxing paper gains, it becomes much easier to extend it elsewhere."
If you're in your 40s or 50s with a family property, farmland near a growing city, or an investment property in your retirement plans, this matters. A liability that arrives without cash to pay it can force decisions — about selling, borrowing or restructuring — at exactly the wrong time. Understanding how these taxes work is fast becoming part of sensible wealth planning, not a footnote to it.
Read the full article: Noel News — Taxing unrealised capital gains — Noel Whittaker, Noel News, August 2026.
Want to build wealth with a clear-eyed view of tax along the way? Making Money Made Simple (26th Edition) is Noel's classic guide to investing, property and getting ahead — buy direct from the author for $16.99, delivered instantly as PDF + EPUB.