The Barnett government in WA is advertising for someone to forecast what its tax and royalty revenues will be. Earlier official predictions, notably on iron ore royalty revenue, have proven wildly inaccurate. The advertisement specifically calls for macro-economic and...
BLOG: henry review of taxation
The land tax strumpets
Two organisations share the acronym PCA: the Property Council of Australia and the Prostitutes Collective of Australia*. One makes a useful civic contribution, the other is a bunch of filthy whores who will do anything for money and deserve universal condemnation for...
Carnegie’s endowment
Prominent Australian investor Mark Carnegie has called for tax reform to end the policy and financial straight jacket we find ourselves in – pointing to land tax, a resources tax and a lift in the GST to 15 per cent. He labelled the Abbott Government’s upcoming White...
Tax reform derailed
Prosper has serious concerns about the equity and economic efficiency of the reform proposals reported in the media as coming from cabinet ministers – notably broadening the GST , which is a regressive tax. Our submission spells out why.
Ditch the saddlebags of deadweight losses – for the win
Yesterday, Cameron Kusher of CoreLogic RP Data called for the removal of conveyancing Stamp Duty and its replacement with a universal land tax. His comments come just ahead of the release of the federal government tax reform white paper. He echoes Australia’s Future...
Australia’s twin economic diseases
Australia has two infections that compromise our economic health. Their remarkably similar symptoms – fever, delirium, impaired judgement - muddy diagnosis and hamper effective treatment. Most are familiar with ‘Dutch disease’, where a resource bounty – in Holland’s...
Economic rents must become part of the public discourse
An economics professor planned to live without acknowledging land.
He would have succeeded but found that he needed food, clothing and somewhere to stand.
Dump Stamp Duties to help labour mobility
One of the biggest impediments to labour mobility are stamp duties levied on housing transactions. Stamp duties can add tens-of-thousands of dollars to the cost of changing home, leading to fewer transactions and discouraging labour mobility.
WA shows tax reform leadership. Well, I hope so.
WA Treasurer Mike Nathan has heard the call from REIWA President David Airey to end Stamp Duty and fund this by removing exemptions from State Land Tax
REIWA: Abolish Stamp Duty for State Land Tax
Yesterday REIWA president David Airey issued a call in the West Australian newspaper for the WA government to abandon Stamp Duty and fund this by removing the many wheezes from the tattered State Land Tax. Hooray! Airey says: “It’s time to recognise that stamp duty...