Revenue needed for essentials

FAIRER TAXATION

LET’S connect the dots showing the trouble spots on the social map of Tasmania. First, ambulance ramping. Reason: Not enough hospital beds. Second, insufficient housing and many families homeless, some in tents. Reason: inadequate housing builds and welfare housing. Third, congested roads, no rail and inadequate buses. Reason: years of underinvestment. All three are the result of government spending not keeping up. Why? Because governments state and federal have not raised enough tax to cover the essentials.

Let’s look at government revenue. First, heavy reliance on PAYE taxpayer, whose wages are stuck in neutral and received a big increase in the tax-free threshold. Second, multinationals like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, paying almost no local tax, oil companies and miners likewise, all structuring their books to legally minimise tax. Third, superannuants, asked to make a small contribution of their generous tax concession from dividend imputation, and they squeal as if mortally stung while using hospitals, roads, pharmaceutical benefits paid for by everyone else.

The Henry review suggested increasing the GST, with howls all around, opposing perhaps the fairest measure. There have been endless tax summits. Come on Australia, let’s look at tax income, before we end up with third world services. crement. I think it may help if I were to fling my art at politicians until they understand the decision to try to retire on one’s savings is a complex one. Changing the rules during the retirement phase is tantamount to instituting a retrospective tax, in this case resulting in more people claiming full or part pensions. Over a few years this policy will be a net loss to treasury. The ALP leader rattles on and on with the word fairness but there is nothing less fair than messing about with super conditions after decisions have been taken to retire.

Corporate rate

NEW senator Steve Martin will support the Federal Government’s plan to cut the corporate tax from 30 to 25 per cent. I doubt if Jacqui Lambie whom he replaced would have supported it.

Custard lumps

PHEW. I think Derryn Hinch and Tim Storer have saved Malcolm Turnbull from a Pyrrhic victory. I can be persuaded that lowering Australia’s company tax could be a good idea, but like almost everything, it is not a magic remedy, and needs to be done well. I tried to understand the issue and use various sources of information to draw a diagram of who pays what and who collects what. I didn’t get far, and soon had a mess with lumps and blobs everywhere joined by a spaghetti bowl of lines. Then I had an insight. Maybe tax is like custard. Almost everyone can recognise something has gone wrong with the custard when it A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website. has lumps in it, and tax systems have loopholes where custard has lumps. Probably our tax system has had so many tweeks and twiddles since Federation it has ceased to be, or even resemble, a system, and has become little more than a random collection of loopholes. Just lowering the company tax rate will just add another loophole and is more likely to make problems worse than better.

What’s left over?

A WORLD competitive 17 per cent corporate tax rate already in place, 30 per cent of Australian companies not paying any tax, about one in five multinational companies not paying tax. Exactly what is there to trickle down to the employee?

Battler income at risk

IF you have a business or shares in a business which entitle you to a $10,000 dividend each year, the business pays 30 per cent company tax on the dividend (roughly $3300) and then forwards the $10,000 dividend to you. You are entitled to the $3300 franking credit (basically tax has already been paid on this amount). If in retirement your tax bill was only $3000, you can claim back the extra $300 in cash, because tax has been paid to the amount of $3300. This cash amount is what Bill Shorten wants to remove from Aussie battlers who look forward to a small income stream in their retirement.

Power to obstruct

THANK you Ivan Dean (Talking Point, March 29). An accurate assessment of our current Legislative Council which does not have a mandate to obstruct our Government’s mandate to legislate. We don’t need convincing as Queensland, ACT, NT and New Zealand have demonstrated a unicameral parliament works. The Greens and other Left obstructionists of course will not agree as their non mandated power to obstruct will be erased from parliament.

Be strong

STEVE Smith: Be strong, Be brave, And perhaps a raging nation can, Be kind.

Mountain cheers

THE brewery isn’t convinced about the cable car, I will drink to that.

Trade wars

COMMUNISM hasn’t changed. Mao Tse-Tung once said he would have the West, particularly America, depending on China for trade, then suddenly stop trading and economically break them. Is Trump getting in first?