As you may be aware, the Treasurer addressed tax reform during the National Press Club event on Wednesday. Labor made several commitments before the election, but the question remains—where will the funding come from? They are now considering tax reform. Although the Treasurer stated he is not currently inclined to raise the GST, it remains on the table as an option. Are we expecting to pay more tax in the near future?
Labor Open to New Ideas on Tax Reform
nned2say on 19/06/2025 - 12:37
Comments
LAND TAX - 1% per year on the rateable value. This alone could replace the bulk, if not all, of all other taxes.
EXCHANGE RATE TAX - A tax on every single transaction that results in AUD being sold. Start it at 1% and use the proceeds to reduce income and business taxes and increase welfare payments accordingly. Raise it to 10% and remove all other taxes. This deals with the inequity that comes from transfer pricing and other tax minimizing activities by major multinationals etc.
MINING EXPORT ROYALTIES - A flat 10% tax on the value of all minerals exported.
ABOLISH STATE GOVT - 27 million people do not need three tiers of government which amongst other things gives us 9 different legal systems. It's never going to happen so long as the people who benefit from the status quo are the only ones who can make this happen.
Negs without reasons…
- Absolutely not abolishing state gov until you figure out what happens to all the services it provides including homeless, vulnerable people, law, justice, police, hospital, school etc.
All functions of state government remain as is and come under federal jurisdiction.
Over time there should be national amalgamation of services etc. offering greater efficiencies.England, for example, has approximately double the population of Australia and has 2 tiers of government.
We are not some brits, bro.
Some countries have 100x the population of Aussie yet are in the bottom of every measure including being some of the least developed. Having 1 tire or 10 tires makes no difference here.
if there are inefficiencies, then it can be removed from any tier
Reading through this thread, look like everyone wants to tax others (not themselves) … well, it's going to be very hard to reform tax…
Labor also needs Green's approval to pass the bill in the Senate…
Also given Australia are in 10 years of deficit…
I predict that there is no real reform because average Australians just want handout. At best there are some tweak targeting small groups (large super balance, home owners and maybe resource companies) to afford government spending and more handout.
The tax system in Australia is outdated in several aspects:
1. Large portion of tax revenue relies on income tax.
2. Stamp duty (not reliable tax revenue as opposed to land tax). But this is state tax, not fed.Great start would be increasing company tax from 30%. Why the fk is a company earning million + a year paying less tax than me. It's ridiculous.
Income tax should be staged in reverse. Thats the only way to incentivise productivity. Increasing the % rate the more you make sends the wrong signal to anyone who wants to work harder.
It's actually a tragedy that you get a vote
Is that hand of yours holding out for Centrelink payment getting tired?
So your theory is the person who works a 40 hour week and gets paid $50,000 is not as productive as the person who works a 40 hour week and gets paid $100,000, and we should tax the first person more to fix their productivity problem?
Here is a reform: Abolish the exemption for Div 293 for higher office holders.
https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals-and-families/super-for-in…
OMFG - Had no idea!
STORM CANBERRA AUSTRALIA!
How about a land or property tax? Every house owner or business or company which owns a house, apartment or parcel of and pays a charge on the unimproved capital value of that piece of land? Something similar to land tax in expensive suburbs, or an extra on local government rates? Everyone would end up paying, even renters who indirectly pay via the landlord. Some US States pay this tax.
An MP works 67 days a year but gets paid well over $200k (for an MP with no parliamentary appointments and a lot more if you have). And even then, they need to crowd source ideas because they cant think of their own.
Hopefully we start taxing capital gains more harshly, PAYG labour less harshly, and significantly reduce tax benefits for businesses.
Unfortunately we have lobby groups and organisations/ individuals with exceedingly large amount of wealth who can publicly and privately campaign governments, politicians and individuals against taxes which affect their finances.
A prime exam is the Resources Super Profit Tax (RSPT) in 2010 which was vehemently opposed by the mining lobby with a multimillion dollar campaign which saw a sitting prime minister knifed in the back. This tax was a recommendation of the Henry Tax reform in 2009 to increase the tax base and raise billions of dollars in revenue. The tax was crippled to the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) and only raised a fraction of the anticipated billions from the RSPT. It then was repealed entirely by the subsequent government.
Unfortunately in Australia the show is run by the resources industry and any meaningful change will be met with strong campaigning and fear mongering (ie jobs will be loss, foreign investment will dry up). Unfortunately the Australian public are easily deceived by news headlines and propaganda.
Income tax as a percentage of tax revenue is too high in Australia compared to other countries.
OECD data data from 2023-24 highlight income tax as a percentage of tax revenue follows these approx percentages for the given countries listed:
Australia ~50%
United States ~41%
United Kingdom ~27%
Canada ~36%
Germany ~25%
France ~18%
OECD average ~24%I think Australia has an issue with government spending and inefficiencies. I think the individual tax payer is already too heavily taxed and large companies and corporations have too many avenues to avoid paying tax. It’s why the individuals of Australia seem to be falling behind whilst wealth is being distributed to the already wealth and large organisations.
Another consequence I see of having such a heavy reliance on person income tax as revenue is the pressure to have immigration to increase tax revenue. Which itself becomes an issue when there isn’t the appropriate expenditure on infrastructure to support the extra number nor is the sufficient housing supply.
Australia is blessed with resources but I believe the balance of who benefits from these resources are too heavily in favour of the multibillion dollar companies and not the Australian people.
Finally we also have the future fund at up in 2006 which is now worth $200B. I think this fund should be better utilised in generating revenue through projects than just dumping into the share and property market.
Potential Tax Changes
Cuts:
* Income tax
* Business investment
* Abolish state property stamp dutyRises:
* Road user levy to replace fuel excise
* Family trusts
* Capital gains tax discount
* Franking credits
* Mining, energy and carbon taxation
* Remove tax breaks for Evs
* Broad land taxhttps://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/this-is-the-speech-…
This list is like the wet dream of someone like Gina
Donation to political parties are no longer tax deductible
Are they !?, That sounds like the stupidest rule of all time .Political parties are same as charities , WTF
Drop all income tax, bump the GST to 15% across the board, and subsidise those with an income of <$50,000 with an additional $5,000 per year (or a sliding scale of some sort), another $5000 to pensioners, and youll have one of the fairest tax systems in the world. The big end of town spend big so the extra GST revenue just accumulates, no messy systems and tax brackets to worry about, no tax avoidance, low income earners are more than compensated with a subsidy, and the incentive to work hard and earn a salary boost is there more than ever.
Drop all income tax
Increase gst.
Have higher gst for things like cars, cigarettes, alcohol etc
Increase pension payment
Etc
Superannuation is the best place to start. Its the biggest rort for the wealthy. ALP have made a start but there is more to do.
Remove all tax incentives for investment properties.
Time to heavily increase taxes on wealth!
Time to become a politician.
No Div 293 tax.
free pensions up to 500K for life
without doing anything for the country - what a joke!People are really gonna hate..!
You pay a fixed amount of your tax based on annual wage/income that you CAN NOT get back. You can not offset or claim against a loss. It's money that goes straight to the government coffers.
Eg. (needs tweaking) Make:
150$K/year pay 1% ($1,500)
1$M/year pay 10% ($100,000)What this means is that millionaires can't pay 0$ tax anymore. That pay $100k and they can b1tch all they want but don't like it f#*k off!
Being open to new ideas and actually doing something are worlds apart though.
Everybody is literally screaming about how one sided the property tax system is and yet they're looking at everything but. It's social engineering resulting in a significant shift in population demographics (less organically born kids etc.)
Tax 2nd, 3rd, 4th investments at reasonable rates and all of a sudden house prices stop being a tax dodge vehicle.
A progressive 10, 20, 30% tax on earnings per additional property over your first investment property in a trust or personal portfolio. You're exempt from this tax for 5 years if you purchase new/off the plan.
A tax of 100% of the stamp duty on an existing dwelling if bought as an investment property (you have a 12-month transition period where you can hold your existing PPOR and recently purchased property for those moving into new homes in case of existing tenants.) This tax is exempt if you build a new house or apartment. (75% of all investment properties are existing dwellings).
I'm OK with the super tax provided they INDEX IT, which they won't and naturally our future generations will be caught up in it at a later date.
Go after the mining & oil companies that are offshoring their profits. We could be Saudi Arabia 2.0, but better.
Oh and the GST increase is a joke.