Tax rates are way too high

Date: 31 May 2017

The Tax Institute supports the decision of the Government not to continue with the temporary budget repair levy beyond 30 June 2017. Retaining the budget repair levy would only exacerbate the current burden of our high marginal tax rates.

The Tax Institute’s Senior Tax Counsel, Professor Robert Deutsch says, “Marginal tax rates need to be lowered, not raised.”

“Australians are currently facing the prospect of one of the highest personal tax rates at almost 50%. This is way too high relative to rates imposed in other countries. Our current rate structure only serves to push talented Australians offshore to more favourable jurisdictions like Singapore (22%) and Hong Kong (15%) not to mention New Zealand (33%), the US (39.60%) and Canada (33%).” said Professor Deutsch.

“The Tax Institute believes the top rate should be no more than 37% (plus the Medicare levy) and this could be achieved without any detriment to the revenue base primarily through a broadening of the income tax base.”

“We need to find a solution to bring the personal tax rates down.”

“The need for such measures is urgent in order to reduce the on-going competitive tax disadvantage which currently persists under the prevailing Australian tax architecture”. 

ENDS 

For more information, please contact:

Stephanie Conway, Media Relations Contact: 02 8223 0011

The Tax Institute is Australia’s leading professional association and educator in tax. Its 12,000 members include tax agents, accountants and lawyers as well as tax practitioners in corporations, government and academia. The Tax Institute supports the tax profession through education and professional development and works to continually improve tax law and its administration.