Australia’s complex and distorting tax system is a mess because it lacks a first tax principles approach to raising revenue as simply and efficiently as possible, and at the least cost to the economy.
The Howard government’s incentive-sharpening GST tax package introduced in 2000 was Australia’s last substantial and enduring productivity-enhancing policy reform.
Paul Keating had tried to get up a broad-based consumption tax in 1985 to help fund lower income tax, but was overruled by the ACTU.
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The Australian Financial Review’s succinct take on the principles at stake in major domestic and global stories – and what policy makers should do about them.
