Most Australians no longer feel overtaxed according to Per Capita survey

YOU’D think most Australians hate taxes. But new data reveals we have an unusual attitude to giving the government lots of our hard-earned cash.

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MOST Australians no longer feel overtaxed with attitudes changing dramatically in the last three years.

Back in 2012, just 35.7 per cent of Aussies either thought they paid the right amount of tax or didn’t pay enough, according to a survey by progressive think tank Per Capita.

This turned around dramatically in 2014, when 54.9 per cent reported feeling comfortable with the tax they paid. This year’s survey generally maintains the result with 52.8 per cent feeling they paid the right amount or not enough.

Just 37 per cent of those surveyed believed they paid too much tax, a huge drop from the 50 per cent who felt that way in 2012.

The survey of 1413 adult Australians also found that people would also be willing to pay more tax for better health and aged care services (51.9 per cent), better schools, universities and TAFEs (35.7 per cent) and better transport (34.5 per cent).

Per Capita executive director David Hetherington said he thought the most striking result in the survey was the fact that 60 per cent of respondents believed the tax system favoured the wealthy.

“In my view, I think we do need to address some of the unfair features of the tax structure to make sure the wealthy pay their fair share including looking at super tax concessions and negative gearing,” Mr Hetherington said.

But he said that income tax changes were probably not a priority.

For the purposes of the survey, high income earners were classified as those earning $150,000 and above.

According to data from the Australian Taxation Office, those in the top 10 per cent of income earners in 2010-11 (who earned more than $105,500 a year) paid 46 per cent of total tax collected.

THE MOST OVERTAXED GROUP?

The group that feels the most overtaxed is the 35 to 44 year old age group, with 50.7 per cent believing they pay too much tax.

More than half of those earning more than $200,000 a year (54.4 per cent) felt they are overtaxed.

But there was not much sympathy for their view. About 66 per cent of those surveyed thought high-income earners paid too little tax, only 9.2 per cent felt they paid too much tax. However, sympathy for high income earners has increased since last year, as those who felt they didn’t pay enough tax fell by 5 percentage points.

Overall the perception that high income earners didn’t pay enough tax increased the older the respondent was.

Those earning between $80,000 to $100,000 felt the most strongly that high income earners pay too little tax (77 per cent).

The feeling was also shared by those Liberal voters (61.5 per cent) and for Labor, Greens and independent supporters, which ranged between 76 and 77 per cent.

Those aged between 35 and 44 were most likely to feel overtaxed.

NEGATIVE GEARING

There was support for pulling back the tax concessions available to those running investment properties at a loss, which costs the Budget more than $20 billion every year.

About 19 per cent wanted negative gearing axed completely, while 39.3 per cent thought it should be restricted to either new or affordable homes, or both. Only 15.8 per cent didn’t want to see it restricted at all, while more than 25 per cent said they weren’t sure.

SUPERANNUATION

People are also more unwilling to work longer to fund their retirement, with many preferring to see super contributions increased instead.

When asked how additional retirement savings should be funded, the most popular approach was via increasing contributions, supported by 36.2 per cent of respondents.

There was also support for extra super tax concessions (23.8 per cent) and changing the aged pension rate (11.8 per cent). The option of working longer was the least popular (11.5 per cent) and about 15 per cent were unsure what to do.

WHO DOES THE TAX SYSTEM FAVOUR MOST?

About 61 per cent believe the tax system favours the wealthy the most. Only 15.3 per cent thought it favoured those on welfare most, the second most common response.

BUSINESS TAX

About 75.9 per cent felt that big business didn’t pay enough tax.

But when it came to small business, only 5.7 per cent believe they pay too little, with 43.9 per cent feeling they pay the right amount of tax.

EDUCATION

Support for cutting spending on non-government schools to increase funding for public schools fell by 6 percentage points since last year to 46.2 per cent.

A further 31.4 per cent said other spending should be cut, while 6.9 per cent believe taxes should be increased.

MEDICARE CO-PAYMENT

It’s pretty clear why the Abbott Government were forced to drop the proposal for a $7 co-payment for each doctor’s visit, with 55.6 per cent of those surveyed saying they did not support the payment.

The survey was taken just after the government announced its decision in March to drop the payment. Only 7.8 per cent said they supported the payment. But some did back a $5 co-payment, with 24 per cent saying they supported that.

ARE WE ARE HIGH TAXING COUNTRY?

While 47.3 per cent believe Australia is a high-taxing, big government country, the most recent data shows that the country’s tax to GDP ratio is in the bottom 20 per cent of the 34 OECD developed economies. Australia’s ratio has increased by 0.8 per cent to 27.3 per cent compared to the OECD average of 33.7 per cent. Only Ireland, Switzerland, South Korea, the US, Chile and Mexico have lower tax takes.