Today, the Australian government announced additional taxation of high income funds in the decumulation or retirement stage of investments in superannuation. Arguably, the changes add more to complexity…
Two changes are needed to the taxation and family benefits system to improve efficiency and achieve equity between families. The first step is to replace the current complicated family tax benefit payment…
New research by economists from the Australian National University claims that if petrol excise duty were linked to inflation, Australians would drive less and buy more fuel-efficient cars. But higher…
An iron law of economics is that people respond to incentives. If the petrol price goes up, it should be of little surprise that consumers alter their choices at both the petrol pump and the car dealership…
President Obama left little doubt during his State of the Union address as to what his top priority will be in the years ahead. “A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs”, the President declared…
Why hasn’t the Minerals Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) produced significant revenue? The answer lies in a combination of basic features of the MRRT design, and the recent fluctuation in prices of iron ore and…
Annmarie Elijah, Australian National University et John Leslie, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
In March this year Australia and New Zealand will celebrate the 30th anniversary of a trade agreement known as Closer Economic Relations (CER). Few Australians and New Zealanders are likely to notice…
Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the start of what is set to be Australia’s longest election campaign. Set for the 14th of September, it will last approximately eight months. One…
At a meeting in Luxembourg last week, the finance ministers of 11 members of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain) agreed…
With appropriate investment in design and explanation, a larger GST reform package could be one of the most effective and easiest options to help reverse Australia’s lagging productivity growth. Changes…
If Australian governments are serious about raising rates of economic growth, they must reform the tax mix and increase the workforce participation rates of women and older people. Each of these reforms…
Alcohol is a prime target for taxation. It’s a good source of government revenue; it allows governments to recoup costs for providing services to drinkers (such as accident and emergency care and policing…
The 2012 federal budget offers to return a modest surplus of $1.5 billion over the financial year 2012-2013, with the hope of further surplus budgets in the following years. In normal circumstances, this…
In the last 24 hours, we have heard mutterings about the possibility that an earlier commitment to cuts in the corporate tax rate may not go ahead in the budget. Some in the business community have, unsurprisingly…
Productivity growth results in more valued output per unit of production input, or the same output for fewer inputs. Growth of productivity requires changes involving the adoption of new technology, better…
The Federal Government’s quest to return the budget to surplus raises many questions and not just about what immediate rationale there is on economic grounds for this strategy. It also raises deeper questions…
Oliver Wendell Holmes, jnr famously said that he liked paying income tax: it was the price of civilisation. Sure, he bought his civilisation at about seven cents in the dollar, but the general point remains…
What can we expect from the Tax Forum at Parliament House today and tomorrow? We may anticipate consensus that the tax system should be efficient, fair, understandable and effective in raising the revenue…
There will be a myriad of issues debated at this week’s Tax Forum but top of the wishlist for many experts is reforming housing taxation. Housing makes up the lion’s share of household wealth in Australia…
Momentum is building behind the global campaign to impose a tax on transactions in financial markets, with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso announcing plans to introduce the measure as…