The Andrews government is flying a kite today in The Age to gauge public opinion on removing conveyancing Stamp Duty and using State Land Tax instead. This initiative deserves thunderous applause. With many young Victorians now excluded from home ownership and renting...
BLOG: tax reform
Reform Negative Gearing Now!
Are you locked out of the housing market? Do you want to see an end to market distorting subsidies to property investors? Sign the petition! This petition calls for the Federal Government to reform negative gearing NOW! Negative Gearing must be limited to new housing...
Perverse incentives from dud taxes dog public infrastructure investment
Melbourne Domain Sunday went into shock and horror over the impact a proposed elevated rail would have on the selling prices of adjoining Carnegie properties. Area agents say the value of houses backing onto the rail line from Carnegie to Hughesdale could be slashed...
Abandon bad taxes
Flinty Deloittes economist Chris Richardson and all-heart ACOSS chief Cassandra Goldie are on the same page today in the Australian Financial Review. Literally – page 47. Their tax policy prescriptions, now Malcolm Turnbull has ruled out increasing the GST, are...
Environment minister Greg Hunt’s new ‘value capture’ language
Environment minister Greg Hunt, on behalf of the Turnbull government, is offering new language about ‘value capture’ – a fresh way to fund infrastructure using the uplift in land values from civic investment. From a speech to be delivered to the Sydney Business...
Support a GST increase? Think about the children first
By Michael Janda Online business reporter with the ABC. Reposted from The Drum Increasing the GST is widely presented as the logical, perhaps the only, solution to Australia's revenue shortfall, but it is a deeply flawed tax and there are better alternatives, writes...
Humans vs Houses: Australia’s perverse tax system
by Cameron Murray Reposted from macrobusiness I often joke that my investment property earns more than I do. Thinking more about this lead me to the realisation that my investment property has a privileged position in the tax system when compared to a measly old human...
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts
The economic impact of stamp duty, a study by Deloitte Access Economics for the Property Council of Australia released yesterday, finds Australia’s GDP would increase by $3.3 billion and real consumption by $9.7 billion if conveyancing stamp duty was replaced by an...
A GST hike will hurt everyone. Everyone.
The AFR’s economics editor Alan Mitchell has taken a Treasury briefing. He is out this morning offering all sorts of reasons why a broader, higher GST is a brilliant master-stroke that deserves universal applause. He knows, we all know, a Goods and Services Tax is...
Economic depressions 101.0
Economic depression for dummies Let’s say labour joins with capital and land to produce wealth, and that the locational rent of land arises as a by-product, simply from the existence of the surrounding community and its infrastructure. Say, for some reason or other,...