Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has produced so many thought bubbles on tax reform he makes fresh beer look flat. His latest effervescence is for the states to levy their own income tax on top of the Commonwealth take. He needs to be warned: Be careful what you wish...
BLOG: land tax
Victoria thinks the unthinkable – land tax
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...
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...
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...
Land Tax Benefits Build
The chorus continues to grow for the inclusion of Land Taxes in the national tax debate. Economics editor for The Age Ross Gittins advocates his support for Land Tax in How to fix everything: Why? Partly because GST is a regressive tax, whereas land tax is...
Value Capture Variants
Last Thursday Catherine Cashmore and I addressed the Select Committee into the Scrutiny of Government Budget Measures. Read the Hansard transcription. We felt it important to put on the public record the various value capture mechanisms with commentary on their...