Fill the hole in the Australian Budget
The Australian Budget has a huge hole in it.
The hole has not been made by pensioners, workers or small businesses.
The hole needs to be plugged by those who have carefully constructed it, the tax-dodging mega-rich Australian companies and multinational corporations.
We know the Turnbull Government is shy on revenue raising.
We know the Liberal Party's lop-sided insistence on cutting expenditure, and we know that this puts in jeopardy elements of the "Social Wage" that the Australian people have repeatedly voted for: Medicare, several essential pensions, public schools, public TAFE, public universities, public hospitals public broadcasters like the ABC and SBS, disability scheme, family assistance, child care and Aboriginal support and programs.
It is not a matter of Left versus Right.
It is not a matter of the "politics of envy," there is no call here to increase any tax rates, nor to decrease them.
The call is to simply collect the taxes already supposed to be collected.
It is simply a matter of management competence.
To achieve Budget revenue repair before any consideration of further cuts, the Australian Parliament should take the following actions: Criminalise the use of off-shore tax escapes.
Multinationals pay 30 per cent tax on all profits made from business conducted in Australia.
The revenue from this has been estimated by Rozvany, a "leading corporate tax authority" at $50 billion per year.
Oxfam, using a fraction of the data, has already identified revenue repair to the tune of $6 billion per year.
Like Pauline Hanson I believe the figure is more likely to be "100s of billions".
Require Australian companies which pay little to no tax to pay a three per cent fee to operate in Australia.
This will produce, according to the ATO, an estimated revenue of $12 billion per year, with many more billions if increased to four per cent or five per cent.
Superannuation for all people with an annual taxable income of over 150 per cent of the average (around about $130,000) replace the concessional 15 per cent tax rate with marginal tax rates at an estimated revenue increase of $29 billion per year or a minimum of $12 billion per year
Negative gearing for all people with annual taxable income of over 150 per cent of the average, remove access to negative gearing at an estimated revenue increase of $5 billion per year.
Capital gains tax for all people with an annual taxable income of over 150 per cent of the average, remove the 50 per cent tax exemption on capital gains at an estimated revenue increase of a minimum of $6 billion per year.
Remove all subsidies to fossil fuel companies at an estimated revenue increase of $5.5 billion per year.
Together, these six areas provide revenue increases of approximately $107 billion, twice the size of the Budget deficit without raising tax rates.
All cross-benchers should support this strategy but it is especially so with One Nation because it has a series of policies which lend themselves to this strategy.
Email, 16 Aug 2016
Dr Vanlyn Davy, Pearl Beach