New research from the Australia Institute reveals that the largest part of the Federal Government’s tax plan will overwhelmingly benefit older, high-income men – despite the Government’s attempt to highlight how much young women have to gain.

The Stage 3 tax cuts due to come into effect 2024-2025 will see men get twice as much of a tax cut as women, with over half going to the top 10% of income earners – overwhelmingly men.

Key Findings:

• The benefits of the Government’s Stage 3 tax cuts will overwhelmingly benefit the highest income earners, most of which are men.
• Stage 3 tax cuts, worth $184 billion, will see women get 33 percent of the tax cut, men get 67 percent of the tax cut.
• In short, for every $1 of the tax cut that women receive, men receive $2.
• The top 10% of income earners receive 50% of the benefit, and almost three-quarters of the benefit (72%) will got to the top 20 percent.
• The 50% of income earners will get only 5% of the tax cuts, and the bottom 20% will get nothing at all.

“A rigorous analysis of the Government’s tax plan shows that Australian women will be short-changed by a factor of two to one,” said Matt Grudnoff, senior economist at the Australia Institute.

“To cherry pick data and claim that women are better off than men is disingenuous at best. We encourage the Government to publicly release the data informing their gender claim so the public can analyse its veracity.

“The largest part of the tax cut, worth $184 billion, will overwhelmingly benefit older, high-income men.

“Our research shows that the idea young women have the most to gain from the legislated tax cuts is a complete furphy. For every $1 of the tax cut benefit which goes to women, $2 goes to men.

“The stage-3 tax cuts will only serve to further entrench wealth inequality between men and women.

“The good news is that they do not come into effect until July 2024, which is plenty of time for the government and the parliament to abandon them.”