Taxation Discussion Paper

Post date: Apr 9, 2015 9:50:10 PM

SVdP sent the following. See also http://bettertax.gov.au/

Dear Social Justice Committee

You will have heard that the Federal Government is moving to reform Australia’s Taxation system. And there is certainly a case for positive tax reform. But there are also proposals being proposed that are of concern to the Society and the people we assist.

Today the Treasurer released a Taxation Discussion paper: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tax-white-paper-treasury-urges-more-gst-less-income-tax-20150329-1maeco.html

This taxation conversation that we’ve been promised by the Government will be of significant interest to the Society as a number of proposals / options on the table have the potential to positively or negatively affect those we assist.

The Society’s National Council will undoubtedly be preparing a submission over coming weeks (with submissions due by May) and we will have an opportunity to provide input.

At this early stage, here are just some of the key issues that will concern our Society:

· Raising the GST or extending it to cover currently exempt items such as food, health and education. This is of concern as the GST is a regressive tax that will hit the poorest the hardest. The Society advocated every hard in the 90s to the have food excluded from the GST. The argument to raise GST in return for lower income taxes won’t help those living on the margins!

· The prospect of reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions is a potential positive, as these concessions currently stimulate speculative investment in the property market and forego the Government Billions of dollars every year. Tightening these tax concessions is a much better way to balance the budget than to cut spending to the most vulnerable people in our communities.

· Superannuation tax concessions must also be reformed as they currently give a big concessions to those on high incomes that least need it and this costs the Government over $30 billion in foregone revenue every year.

For interest, ACOSS issued this statement today……

http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dc75dd1bc5b82d27349ef82b9&id=d7721d542a&e=15c6101887

I am looking forward to the conversation continuing over coming weeks and months.

Kind regards

Lukas