A Tax Summit is happening in Canberra at the moment. Why, well someone thought it would be a great idea to talk some more about all the things the Henry Commission spent months proposing, and the government are not prepared to make decisions on.
So here we go, lets spend more money getting everyone to Canberra, to sit in a nice circle with legs crossed like school children talking about why we pay such high taxes, why it is SO complicated, why we have one of the higher taxes in the world and why we penalise people for saving, or at least wanting to save more money for retirement. (ie. charge a penalty for going over a retirement savings "contribution cap"!)
NSW Treasurer Mike Baird commented to Nine News that he felt the summit was a "tick box" exercise. He indicated that he was hopeful there would be an undertaking for serious reform and felt that every single tax should be put on the reform table. He said further that he was happy to dump a State inefficient stamp duty tax for example and said "it makes no economic sense".
The most common comment from the public, who have been asked to voice their opinions, is to raise GST - even to double it, and then reduce all the other complex taxes. This would potentially ensure that you tax consumers. As David Koch commented though, the Federal Government would never go for this as GST goes into State coffers and the Federal Government would want to retain control of revenue. It does make sense though and perhaps the people should be listened to for once!
Keep an eye out for the termination of negative gearing deductions! It seems to make little sense in the current market and only benefits the top end of town. Perhaps a flat rate of tax? Not likely, as it would have to be a reasonably high rate and would prejudice low income earners.
So another exercise in tax wasting to discuss how to simplify our tax system. Perhaps the government should just implement some of the Henry Commission suggestions!
