Former Australian of the Year Simon McKeon has thrown his weight behind an idea to tax profits on the sale of homes worth over $2 million.
Mr McKeon, who currently serves as chairman of AMP, told Fairfax Media the notion of protecting such profits from tax made little sense.
"I really don't understand why we give such a free kick to those in the community that are lucky enough to own very expensive homes that they live in," he said. "There are plenty of homes, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne and Perth, that you just say, why should they be exempt?"
The comments follow modelling that shows scrapping the capital gains tax exemption for homes worth above $2m could raise $12 billion over four years.