Latest News & Commentary
The Great Capital-Gains-Tax Hoax
photo credit: Paul KeleherGavin R. Putland In light of the recent Tax and Transfer Review by the Federal Government, lobbying interests are moving to reduce capital gains taxes. The term "capital gain" contains a deliberate contradiction: real capital doesn't gain....
Tax Review Must Enhance Property Taxes
photo credit: x_jamesmorris Wednesday's release of the Architecture of Australia's Tax and Transfer System review paper saw commentary by lobby groups attacking capital gains taxes. PETER ANDERSON, CEO ACCI: Our capital gains tax has not been looked at in an...
Should Resource Rents Count as National Savings?
photo credit: Torley David Smiley All countries save about 25 percent of what they produce, their Gross Domestic Product or GDP, for investment as capital in future production. In national accounts these “savings” include environmental damage and natural resource...
Stag-Rental – Property’s Answer to Stagflation
Residential rent crisis set to worsen RENTS are expected to jump another 10% this year after building approvals fell to their lowest since the end of 2006. Home-building approvals have dropped nearly 8% in a year, after falling another 0.7% in June, in seasonally...
Surge in Rents – Bureaucracy or Market response?
State control urged as rent surges 12.7% is the headline that attracts our eager eyes in the Age today. Many of the city's most affordable suburbs have been hardest hit, with the typical rent on a two-bedroom house in Oak Park, Glenroy and Fawkner surging by 25%,...
“The Banana Cannot Have The Tax!”
The Economics of Thailand Karl Williams A conundrum wrapped in a paradox is perhaps the best way to describe Thailand, and its economic system is no exception as our rolling travelogue will illustrate. To pick apart this puzzle, I had the assistance of the only two...
Insights on Canberra’s Land Rent Bill
Gavin Putland The ACT's Land Rent Act, with promised savings of 79% compared to the standard mortgage-based system of home ownership, took effect on July 1. This is an innovative housing affordability policy. Here's what I wrote about it a week before it became law. I...
Interview with Fred Harrison – Silver Bullet
Leading Georgist author Fred Harrison was interviewed on the Renegade Economists last week regarding his new book The Silver Bullet. Download his 16 minute interview covering issues such as Botswana's success, a critique of Jeffery Sach's Resource Curse theory and an...
The Silver Bullet
Hear the author Fred Harrison interviewed on the Renegade Economists tomorrow. Make sure you are podcasting us so you never miss the show. Fred Harrison's new book levels some very serious charges at the current leaders of the poverty industry. The good intentions,...
Submission to the Review of State Taxation (NSW)
The tax unit for an asset-holding tax should be the asset! Gavin Putland Recommendation 10 of the Draft Report of the IPART Review of State Taxation suggests "changing the tax unit for land tax from joint ownership to the individual" as a means of reducing complexity...
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