3w ago

The biggest voices need to admit Australia is a low-taxing nation before joining the economic reform conversation

www.theguardian.com

The biggest voices need to admit Australia is a low-taxing nation before joining the economic reform conversation | Greg Jericho

21 comments

We really should have inheritance ax, over say $3Mil, taxed at say 95%. You're dead, you don't need it.
Oligarchs carrying foward should really be intolerable, inequality is the death of a civilised society.
- So say i own a house and my wife owns a house and we hit the 3 million dollar mark in land value in 40 years,
  You think that 95 percent of that should go back to the government rather then or children?
  
  Taxes like that typically apply only to money beyond the limit so if you hit 3 million and a dollar you would be paying 95 cents in tax on that dollar only.
  
  Not sure whether it changes anything for you, but I think they're proposing that each dollar past the 3 million be taxed at 95%. Both the 3 and the 95 being spitball numbers, of course. I'm not confident that 3 million will be worth much at all in 40 years anyway.
This comes up periodically and is absolutely true, judged as a liberal economy Australia is generally quite efficiently run with below average taxes and above average services. Which is no excuse for not trying to do better and indeed think outside the liberal box.
More interesting is that the graph "Breakdown of total tax raised in Australia since WWII" under "Other taxes" there is a spike in 1951. It seems to correlate with the USA stockpiling wool as part of their strategic reserve and a subsequent speculative bubble.
https://www.winton.com/news/australias-lesser-known-commodities-booms
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/185564703
The highest marginal tax rate for income earners is over 50%. And it takes effect at much lower incomes than other comparable countries.
Increasing the GST would cause double taxation, as people who earnt money at a higher income tax rate then spend that money at a time when there's a higher consumption tax.
- Increasing GST during a cost of living crisis would also just be insane. It ends up being a bigger burden on the poor than the rich. Increasing the cost of a shop at the supermarket right now would not go down well with the electorate.
- The highest marginal tax rate for income earners is over 50%. And it takes effect at much lower incomes than other comparable countries.
  In Australia? The highest marginal tax rate is 45%, and due to the nature of progressive taxation unless you have an absurdly high income most of the income of even high earners is taxed at a lower rate.
  Source: I am in the top tax bracket and until recently did my own taxes
  
  45% income tax, plus 2% Medicare levy, plus the incremental tax added as you move from no div 293 to full div 293. Plus you're paying 10% GST on the things you buy. When you add all these together, earning an extra $100 can net you less than $50. You can see it when you play around with paycalculator.com.au
- The highest marginal tax rate for income earners is over 50%. And it takes effect at much lower incomes than other comparable countries.
  I'm interested which countries?
  
  Australia.

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