By Bryan Kavanagh and David Collyer This week’s game-changer, the Property Taxes paper by Grattan Institute has a minor error on land valuation that needs correcting before it becomes a gift to the opponents of reform. Grattan is acutely aware…
The Grattan Institute has just released a working paper Property Taxes to lift our thinking about which are the best taxes to reform onto. Grattan CEO John Daley and Senior Associate Brendan Coates say: “…states and territories have a looming…
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 econometric…
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…
PRESS RELEASE 19 May 2015 MELBOURNE:- Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has endorsed moves by South Australia to abolish Stamp Duty and replace it with a nil exemption, broad-based land tax. He said the cost of an annual land tax would…
by Bryan Kavanagh reposted from On-Line Opinion Whilst in Newgate Prison (1827-1830) for the abduction of heiress Ellen Turner, Edward Gibbon Wakefield had a great idea. If you kept land prices high in the new British colonies, people could be…
West Australia’s Barnett government has just handed down its budget. It is the ugliest baby I have ever seen. The AFR reports: All key financial measures have been blown apart in the state budget, with net debt (above $30 billion)…
The South Australian government is undertaking a tax review to boost state competitiveness and economic efficiency. Their main focus is considering abolishing conveyencing Stamp Duty and funding this by removing exemptions from the existing State Land Tax. Prosper Australia has…
by Noah Smith The idea of a Land Value Tax (LVT) is to tax the value of land independently of the value of improvements on that land (e.g. buildings, farms, or mines). Separating the value of a plot of land…
Treasury today released its submission to the federal Tax White Paper. It has found a tax that actually confers a benefit on Australian citizens. That is, using it actually leaves us better off. It isn’t a new tax. It is…