The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to the Senate Inquiry on Corporate Tax Avoidance. The issue of tax avoidance by multinational companies has been a research focus of the Institute for some time. While issues of declining PRRT payments and low company tax payments are becoming widely known, particularly due to

The Tasmanian Liberal Party’s new gambling policy would increase taxes for pubs and clubs by around $10 million per year, while cutting taxes for the state’s casinos by $9 million per year, if the gambling industry’s proposed benchmark is used. Taxpayers would also contribute an extra $1.7 million to counter the costs of problem gambling.

The Australia Institute surveyed 1,417 Australians between 5th and 7th of December 2017 about cutting company tax for large companies.

This paper reviews the implications of the latest Trump tax plan for Australia; in particular that part of the plan that involves changes to the company tax arrangements. The present plan would bring the tax rate down to 20 per cent at the national level. With state taxes, that means that the total American rate

Stopping the NAIF loan to Adani and redirecting it to other industries makes good sense economically, environmentally and politically. The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) is a federal agency that provides concessional finance. Adani has applied for close to $1 billion in concessional finance from NAIF for its coal mine and rail project in Queensland.

With the Tasmanian Joint Select Committee on Future Gaming Markets considering the future of poker machines in Tasmania, community pressure is growing for poker machines to be banned from hotels and clubs, limiting them to casinos and the Spirit of Tasmania vessels. Concern that this proposal would reduce government revenue is misplaced. Recent modelling by

The Australia Institute made a brief submission to the Treasury discussion paper on Tax deductible gift recipient reform opportunities. The Australia Institute is a Canberra-based think tank, registered as a charity with the ACNC. We conduct research on a wide range of economic, policy and political issues. We commented on Consultation question 12: Stakeholders’ views

The Australia Institute made a submission to the Senate Economic Committee’s Inquiry into the governance and operation of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF). Over the past year The Australia Institute has investigated the governance and operations of the NAIF. NAIF is entrusted with $5 billion of public funds and has an important role in

The Palaszczuk government’s special royalty deal with Adani remains secret after Treasury blocked a Right to Information request. 2000 pages relating to the ‘clear’ and ‘transparent’ royalty framework were almost entirely redacted. Public servants expressed concerns about analysing the deal after it has been offered. The Queensland Treasury has refused to release the royalty subsidy

A new report released today from The Australia Institute’s Senior Research Fellow, David Richardson shows that, according to ATO data, the equivalent of 21.6 per cent of Australia’s national income was run through a trust. The latest ATO figures show there are 823,448 trusts with assets of $3.1 trillion, and total business income of $349.2

State governments are universally supportive of resource development. They provide considerable financial support to the sector, yet receive relatively little in return. We are unaware of any example of states using the HFE system to argue against resource development.

A new report from The Australia Institute’s Senior Economist, Matt Grudnoff, reviews the economic impact of the South Australian government’s proposed bank levy. The research finds that the banks are not only very capable of paying the 0.0036% levy on the same liabilities that the federal government levy is based on, but also that the

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to a submission to the Inquiry into the Major Bank Levy Bill 2017 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Major Bank Levy) Bill 2017. This submission should be read in conjunction with some earlier submissions to Senate Inquiries. In particular we refer to our submission to the Senate Economics Committee

Development of unconventional gas in the NT risks connecting the NT to the chaos in wider Australian gas markets. As the nation becomes a major gas exporter with record production there have been no winners.

A new report models the impact of an increased Medicare Levy in comparison to a progressive Medicare Levy, more like income tax, on the spread of Australian income earners.  The Government proposes to increase the Medicare levy to 2.5 per cent of income from July 2019. That would mean a gradual switch in the tax

The Australian government’s surprising decision to impose a new tax targeted precisely at the biggest financial institutions in the country continues to generate public debate.  We have reviewed the structure, likely effects, and economic and regulatory context of the proposed 0.06% levy on selected liabilities of the 5 largest financial institutions in Australia. The loud

The Australia Institute has tested two claims made in response to the bank levy announced in the Federal Budget: that the impact of the levy will be passed onto customers, and that it will be borne by shareholders, affecting Australian superannuation savings. —For paper see PDF below— In either scenario, the research finds that the

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) is a $5 billion government fund for concessional financing to build infrastructure in northern Qld, NT and WA. The default financing mechanism is a loan. Adani has applied for a concessional loan of nearly $1 billion from the NAIF for a rail line so that it can export coal

A new ReachTEL poll of 1,618 Queenslanders shows strong opposition to state and federal subsidies for the Adani coal proposal, including among LNP and One Nation voters. -Polling results in attachment below- 59% of Queenslanders oppose Federal and State taxpayers’ money being used to fund Adani’s project. 37% said they were strongly opposed and just

The Labor party has announced a policy to limit the deduction that can be claimed for managing your tax affairs to $3,000. The complexity of the tax system means that some people are spending large amounts of money on accounting advice to take advantage of tax loopholes to significantly reduce their taxable income. They can then reduce their disposable

New polling from The Australia Institute shows almost two thirds (64%) of Australians oppose a taxpayer-funded subsidised loan to the Adani coal mine project, as reports emerge the Queensland Government is considering an additional $320 million subsidy to Adani in the form of a ‘royalty holiday’. —For polling brief see attachement below— “Providing a billion

New research from The Australia Institute has found that the Prime Minister’s electorate is the biggest reaps the greatest benefit from capital gains tax discount, by a large margin. CGT discount expected to cost the budget $9.6 billion dollars this year (2016-17) $44 billion over the next four years. Historical data also shows that, in

Media reports suggest that the Palaszczuk Government intends to give Adani a discount on the royalties the company would pay to extract the state’s coal.  If the Queensland government settles on a royalty holiday for Adani’s proposed coal mine, similar to that used earlier by the NSW government, the cost to Queenslanders will be almost

Development of large coal mines in Queensland’s Galilee Basin will reduce thermal coal prices. This also reduces royalty revenue received by NSW. The Adani project alone is likely to reduce NSW revenue by nearly $50 million per year. The NSW government should oppose subsidies to Adani.

Research from the Australia institute has calculated the impact of the recent Fair Work Commission decision to cut penalty rates on the Commonwealth Budget. The paper from Richard Denniss, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute, found reduced income tax collection from lower wages as well as greater welfare assistance for low income earners is, based on