Tax cuts and Budget surplus - the Australian way

[Skanky Burns]

And here are the actual tax thresholds.

Current -> From July 1, 2005

   

      
 &nbsp Income Range $ &nbsp 
      
 &nbsp % &nbsp 
      
 &nbsp Income Range $ &nbsp 
      
 &nbsp % &nbsp 
   
   

      
0 - 6000
      
0
      
0 - 6000
      
0
   
   

      
6000 - 21,600
      
17
      
6000 - 21,600
      
15
   
   

      
21,601 - 58,000
      
30
      
21,601 - 63,000
      
30
   
   

      
58,001 - 70,000
      
42
      
63,001 - 95,000
      
42
   
   

      
70,001+
      
47
      
95,001+
      
47
   

[pchang]

And immigration skills list expanded to 56 professions. Do not have the list though I do know that hairdressers have been added to it.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Now to convince the wife to move to Oz.

What, so y'all can live the good life riding the upside of the Laffer curve?

[singsong] Che loves Reaganomics! Che loves Reaganomics! Che and Reagan sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes Laffer in the baby carriage! [/singsong]

[DanS]

Don't forget the other side of the equation: spending. To be honest, I don't know how much of her economy that Australia's government spends. But those income tax rates are damn high, unless those are the only taxes that you have to pay.

[JohnT]

Oh, I know. But still, the idea of a Communist wanting to move to a country that's lowering their marginal tax rates is just too rich.

No pun intended, of course.

[DanS]

Actually, I wasn't addressing the post to you, but rather to trev.

[JohnT]

Ahhh.

You know, that "reply with quote" button comes in real handy sometimes.

[DanS]

Skanky: I'm curious about those tax rates. Do those incomes include deductions, such as mortgage interest? Additionally, are there tax credits for children?

JohnT:

[Skanky Burns]

Tax credits were recently introduced for children, at roughly $5000 for a first child. I'll have to look the numbers up though. The Howard government is pro-family and have been seeking to increase the birth rate for quite some time.

Those income ranges are taxable income ranges, so are total income minus total deductions. After 1 July 2007 the highest tax-rate will be payed by those earning over $125,001 taxable income which means the top marginal rate of tax will be payed by roughly 3% or Australians, rather than 10% as was (up until now) currently the case.

There are quite a number of other tax credits too, including my favourite "low income tax offset".

[Lawrence of Arabia]

the economist has a whole section in their last weeks issue about australia, mostly showing that this growth might slow, but will still remain positive for a while to come.

[Dracon II]

Unfortunately, given our dependence on raw material exports, we're price takers. Treasury forecasted that commodity prices would probably fall as the market adjusts, which will affect Australia's revenue. A major contribution to the surplus was from extra company taxes due to high commodity prices.

There are still areas where the Government can improve. They've got to fix the infrastructure problems that are slowing down industry. And they could be doing more to help train Australians to fill the skills shortage. Plus these tax cuts give an additional 60+ dollars a week to high income earners, but only 6 dollars to an average income earner. That's not exactly a big deal.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by JohnT
[singsong] Che loves Reaganomics! Che loves Reaganomics! Che and Reagan sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes Laffer in the baby carriage! [/singsong]

Nice rhyme, but, the problem is Howard balanced the Australian budget instead of running up massive deficits. That is the major accomplishment and it is highly unReagan of him.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

REEEEEEEEEEJECTED

[trev]

There are very substantial benefits paid every 2 weeks to families with children, which pay the majority of the cost of keeping children when one parent is not working, a bit less generous for 2 working parents, but still very useful. Many Australians do think the tax rates are far too high, but then America's tax rates would be much higher too if they ran a budget surplus of 1% of GDP, also we do not have state income taxes or other major sources of tax for the states, they are mostly funded by the 10% GST which is collected by the federal gov't and passed on to the states

[trev]

There is also the final stage of tax cuts to come in on July 1, 2006, where the top thresholds are raised respectively to 80 000 and 125 000 I think. Unlike USA there are also no deductions from our wages such as a social security tax, all superannuation payments are made directly by employers at a rate of 9% of wages excluding overtime payments, so for a reasonable comparison your social security tax should be added to your tax rate.