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

Pauline Hanson’s February 2017 announcement that One Nation will again campaign for a flat-rate 2 per cent turnover tax takes her back to a policy position she first adopted nearly two decades ago.Initial analysis suggests that a shift from the current taxation mix to a 2 per cent turn over tax as proposed by Senator

In the 2016 budget the government announced that it would close carbon tax compensation to new recipients of welfare payments. This would save the government $1.4 billion over the forward estimates, by reducing the income of some of the poorest Australians by around $10 per fortnight.  This cut was introduced to the Parliament in September

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to Treasury’s Review of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT). The review occurs at a time when Australia is set to become the world’s largest gas exporter, yet PRRT revenues are declining. Several major gas projects are unlikely to pay PRRT for decades, according to

A full third of the benefit of a company tax cut would be enjoyed by just 15 companies in Australia. Once phased in the cut would be worth $6.7 billion per year to these companies. Most of these companies are ‘oligopolies’ that dominate their markets and have little incentive to reinvest proceeds of a tax

“…do you know any foreigners you want to give 5% of our national company income to? Any deserving cases out there?” The available evidence suggests that Keating is indeed correct — Australia is on the brink of handing a large gift to foreign investors while the evidence suggests Australia will not get even the dubious

This paper looks at the effect that the fall in tax revenue post Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had on the Commonwealth’s budget. It does this by modelling what would have happened if revenue had instead remained at the government’s tax revenue target of 23.9 per cent of GDP. The difference between what actually happened and

The NAIF will spend $5 billion of public funds in Northern Australia on infrastructure that is unable to attract commercial financing, which could include subsidising the controversial Adani Carmichael coal mine.  Australians don’t want their money funding infrastructure for coal and gas companies under the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), national polling released

The Australia Institute has assessed the proposal for a $5 levy on iron ore in Western Australia. The policy should be supported as a pragmatic alternative to a resource rent tax. The analysis finds that if the $5 levy had been imposed on relevant production over the last five years it would have raised $11.5

A nationally representative poll conducted by The Australia Institute through Research Now asked about attitudes towards implementing a super profits tax on Australian banks. The poll asked: A ‘bank super-profits tax’ would collect a higher rate of tax from banks on top of existing taxes, but levied only on especially high bank profits. Would you approve

The Australia Institute submission to the Economics Legislation Committee for its inquiry into the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016 critiques the proposed savings on the grounds that they will increase inequality and harm innovation.

In the 2016 budget the government announced that it would close carbon tax compensation to new recipients of government welfare benefits.  This will have the effect of reducing the amount paid to welfare recipients. This will save the government $1.3 billion over the forward estimates. The clean energy supplement was not the only part of

New research released by the Australia Institute today shows that government moves to cut unemployment benefits will put recipients at 32% below the poverty line. The research also highlights staggering inequality in Australia where the 10 richest Australian families have the same wealth as the poorest 3.9 million Australians combined.

Post-election polling of 2875 voters from across Australia showed the majority of Labor, Green and Independent voters prefer negotiations with cross bench MPs to form government rather than calling another election. 47.0% of all respondents support negotiations with independents and minor parties to form government while 46.3% said ‘call another election’. — Polling results in

Are there really four dollars benefit for every one dollar company tax cut? Last year Treasury published a paper which purported to show that there was a four dollar benefit for every dollar cut in company taxes. In the paper accompanying the 2016-17 Budget, a new set of results was published which dealt directly with

A reveiw of OECD data of the relationship between living standards and cuts in company tax rates compared with the provision of better education services.

The Coalition’s proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate will result in a significant loss of tax revenue and, in turn, will have a significant impact on the budget balance. The government has argued that the loss in tax revenue will be offset, in part, by the increase in economic activity that they believe will

New research, based on US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data, shows that the proposed company tax cut would see the Australian tax system delivering billions of dollars to the US Treasury.

This discussion paper outlines two different possible implementations of the Finnish model. The first alternative is a direct translation of the Finnish system and would result in a loss of revenue for the state. The second alternative is a modification of the first to estimate a revenue neutral alternative.

International and Australian data on tax rates and macroeconomic indicators provides no evidence of link between corporate tax cuts and a ‘growth dividend’. Despite widespread acceptance of the argument that cutting the corporate tax rate will boost economic growth, the economic evidence is not there according to a new report from David Richardson, Senior Research