Tech entrepreneur Fred Schebesta is relocating his family from Sydney to Singapore, blaming Australia’s economic climate and Labor’s proposed tax changes for his decision to move overseas.
Mr Schebesta, who founded comparison website Finder in 2006, said plans to replace the existing 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with an inflation-based model had made Australia less attractive to entrepreneurs and investors.
He described the proposal as the “nail in the coffin” and said it was contributing to innovators leaving the country.
“So the innovators are leaving. We’re done,” he told Yahoo! Finance.
Mr Schebesta said he was moving with his four children and highlighted Singapore’s zero capital gains tax, proximity to China and business-friendly environment. He also pointed to tax support and grants available to international businesses and foreign entrepreneurs.
“The Singapore government has an initiative to welcome businesses in. They are actively bringing companies into the country,” he said.
In a list of reasons shared on social media, Mr Schebesta criticised Australia’s interest rates and inflation, although interest rates are set by the Reserve Bank of Australia rather than the government.
He also opposed planned changes that would prevent businesses from charging customers surcharges for card payments, saying: “Banned credit card surcharges so companies have to charge you more.”
Mr Schebesta said Australia’s hot temperatures were a “workplace hazard” and criticised what he called a “three-layer payment system” for healthcare involving government taxes, insurance and doctors’ fees.
He urged other founders and young Australians to consider working overseas, despite the practical difficulties involved.
“If you’re a young person and you want to go and buy a house, go overseas and work hard somewhere you get paid for it, and the government doesn’t take all of your money,” he said.
“Then you can actually build your wealth, and then come back and buy your house in Australia. That’s what I think young people should do. Leave.”
Mr Schebesta said he had met other Australians in Singapore who had recently made the same move, describing the city-state as “a place of prosperity, not of more regulation”.
He made his fortune at 26 after founding Finder with Frank Restuccia and Jeremy Cabral. The AFR Rich List estimated his personal fortune at about 340 million Australian dollars in 2021, when Finder was valued at between 650 million and 770 million Australian dollars.
