After some years the Coalition’s proposals would cost $40 billion per year more than Labor’s, but by then Labor will have probably cut tax further too.
What’s not to like about a flatter tax system? Well, for starters, the one laid out in this budget won’t actually simplify our lives.
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The parliamentary budget office expects Australians to be paying significantly higher average tax rates in 2020/21, but their assumptions bear no relation to reality.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter in Question Time.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Christian Porter said Australia’s welfare system ‘was costing over 100% of all income tax raised’ under Labor after the GFC, and that it’s ‘around 80%’ under the Coalition. Is that true?
How possible will budget repair be?
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Short-term, the bracket creep measures help high income earners. But longer-term it evens out.
Economic reality has intruded on rosy budget predictions for years now and the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook may soon challenge Treasurer Scott Morrison’s forecasts.
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Budget repair was put off till later, and the net impact of decisions in the budget was small, but it will be easier to defend in the coming election campaign than some other recent efforts.
Scott Morrison’s budget will determine whether the election campaign starts well or poorly for the government.
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“Are you nervous?” journalist Laurie Oakes asked Scott Morrison two days before the treasurer brings down his first budget. Morrison didn’t answer that but he has every reason to be anxious. As he keeps…
Deloitte strongly argues the budget has a revenue problem, not just a spending problem – a proposition consistently rejected by Treasurer Scott Morrison.
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The federal budget deficit from now through to 2018-19 is likely to be $129 billion, $21 billion worse than in the December official budget update, according to Deloitte Access Economics.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has backed away from the personal income tax cut he had been hinting at.
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On Monday, a scarifying account of Tony Abbott’s prime ministership appears in the bookshops. By journalist Niki Savva, The Road to Ruin: How Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin Destroyed Their Own Government…
Treasurer Scott Morrison was criticised for not announcing any new policy in his National Press Club address.
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Treasurer Scott Morrison has “rescaled” the tax debate to hold out the prospect of “modest” tax relief that may prevent average wage earners moving into the second highest tax bracket.
There are some relatively easy administrative ways of tackling bracket creep.
AAP/Mick Tsikas