Australia was built on the idea that states should compete against each other – but they’re not, and that’s failing us all.
Articles on GST
Displaying 1 - 20 of 178 articles
The current deal costs Australians billions more than it should if we were fairly sharing money around the country. It’s not too late to have your say.
The government is so far turning a blind eye to the Productivity Commission’s scathing GST review. But that’s not stopping the commission from making its case.
The federal government will push for new national laws with rules for where data centres can go, how they must be powered and where their water comes from.
The United States president has agreed to ‘consider’ the request.
The 2018 ‘reforms’ were bad policy. The sooner they are unwound the better.
The businessman and former competition chief says the fierce criticism of what he calls ‘mild’ budget changes shows why politicians have avoided reform for decades.
Taxes raise prices, and higher prices reduce smoking. But duty-free tobacco sales remain a policy anomaly and deny the government much-needed health revenue.
While simply scrapping the 2018 deal might not be feasible, moving to an altogether new system could be a way forward.
If state and federal governments replaced inefficient taxes with better designed ones, households would be at least $900 better off.
The influential crossbench MP warns young working people are going backwards financially. She also backs the government’s proposed YouTube ban for kids – for now.
Revisiting the GST share of revenue among the states could make a big contribution towards repairing the federal budget.
At the turn of the 21st century, Australia put on a show for the world, but for all the talk of the future, we still had one foot in the past.
While the tax break will indeed put more money into consumers’ pockets as the government has claimed, whether it will actually ease inflationary pressure is questionable.
The NSW government wants GST to be allocated according to population. But doing so ignores different service delivery needs between states.
28 of the 38 top economists surveyed by the Economic Survey of Australia want the GST top-up for one of Australia’s richest states scrapped.
Former treasury boss Ken Henry has fessed up to helping dumb down debates about tax and budgets to lists of winners and losers. He says what matters is what wins rather than who.
A buyer could have to pay GST on a ‘substantially renovated’ home, but there’s often uncertainty about whether a renovation counts as substantial or not. A simple test could resolve the issue.
Overseas experiences suggests a targeted system using smart cards for buying fruit and vegetables would be more effective than broad-brush changes to the tax system.
New Zealand’s tax system might be in need of updating, but Revenue Minister David Parker’s new tax legislation is unnecessarily complicated at a time when we most need clarity.
Top contributors
-
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
-
Professor, Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne
-
Lecturer, School of Taxation ＆ Business Law, UNSW
-
Adjunct Professor, Curtin Law School and Curtin Business School, Curtin University
-
Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
-
Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW
-
Professiorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne
-
Professor of Economics, Director of the Australian Institute for Business and Economics, The University of Queensland
-
Professor of Economics and Director, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
-
Visiting Professor of Tax Law, New York University, and Professor of Law, The University of Melbourne
-
Emeritus Professor Australian Institute for Business and Economics, University of Queensland, The University of Queensland
-
Professor of Taxation and Commercial Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
-
Emeritus Professor of Taxation, UNSW
-
Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Tasmania
-
Emeritus Professor of Finance, The University of Melbourne