A push to lift the goods and services tax must form part of a broad reform package that reduces the burden on workers, a prominent economist says.
The Albanese government’s economic roundtable will be held later in August and has prompted calls for an overhaul to the nation’s tax system, including scaling back negative gearing and raising the GST.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said while he backed lifting the GST to 15 per cent, the change had to be implemented among other measures such as lowering income taxes to compensate lower income workers.
“It’s very important it all comes together as a package, because just changing tax concessions will disincentivise income workers,” he told AAP.
“I’m concerned it (roundtable) will morph from broad-base tax reform to more taxes.”
Negative gearing and capital gains concessions could be scaled back if the burden on workers was reduced through lower taxes, Mr Oliver said.
Independent MP Kate Chaney wants a “progressive GST model” as Labor looks for ways to reinvigorate Australia’s languishing productivity and strengthen the budget.
Under a plan proposed by economist Richard Holden, Australia would lift the rate of the consumption tax from 10 to 15 per cent and apply it to exempt items such as certain types of food, education and health.
But to mitigate the impact on those with lower incomes, all Australians aged 18 and older would be given a $3300 rebate, meaning they would effectively pay no GST on the first $22,000 of their annual expenses.
While the GST-free threshold would cost Australia $68.8 billion, increasing the tax and removing exemptions for certain categories would raise $92.7 billion, adding $23.9 billion to the Commonwealth’s budget.
“The major parties like to talk about tax cuts and spending but they’re less willing to discuss where the money will come from,” Ms Chaney said.
“We have to have courageous conversations about other revenue sources to avoid handballing this problem to future generations.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government would determine its policy.
“Our tax policy – the only tax policy that we’re implementing – is the one that we took to the election … which is reducing income taxes,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
Opposition finance spokesman James Patterson said he was concerned two-thirds of revenue generated by Ms Chaney’s proposal would be used to compensate Australians for the tax it collects.
He warned against tax on spending in areas carved out of the GST when it was introduced more than two decades ago, such as education and health.
“The Howard government recognised that people who spend their money on private health or private education are actually taking a burden off the public purse, and therefore it would be unjust to tax them on top of that,” he told Sky News.
It would be an “incredibly brave government” that put a tax on top of insurance and private education fees, Senator Patterson said.
The Australian Council of Social Service has called for a halving of the capital gains tax discount, a 15 per cent tax on superannuation retirement accounts and a commonwealth royalty payment for offshore gas.
It urges the government to strengthen the not-for-profit sector by supporting digital transformation and making service users the centrepiece of governance and program design.
All policies developed at the roundtable should be assessed on how they improve the wellbeing of people and the natural environment while taking gender and other factors into account, the council said.
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