‘Open': Changes to major tax on the cards

News.com.au

10 hours ago

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino has left the door open to potential changes to the GST, saying the upcoming economic reform roundtable should consider a broad range of tax options to boost productivity.
Speaking ahead of the forum, which will focus on ways to lift Australia's long-term economic performance, Dr Mulino said ruling any ideas in or out ahead of time would 'undermine' the purpose of the discussion.
'In the long run, productivity growth is what underpins our standard of living, and any productivity discussion has to include tax,' he told Sky News.
GST, or Goods and Services tax, is a levy of 10 per cent on most items sold in Australia.
His comments follow a new report suggesting the most effective way to fund reductions in corporate tax would be through expanding the GST, increasing council land rates, and raising taxes on offshore oil and gas projects.
Dr Mulino said it was important to look at the full tax system, including how different taxes affect the economy, fairness, and how easy they are to administer.
'And what the Treasurer has said from the outset is that he doesn't want to get into the rule in rule out game, because that would undermine the whole purpose of this process.
'And so he's open to a range of ideas being brought to the round table.
'So what we saw in the analysis that you're referring to is that it's possible to rank taxes by how distortionary they are, and that's an important piece of the analysis.
'But I'd also say that when we're looking at tax reform, that's only one of the criteria.
'It's also important to consider, when you look at a range of taxes, the equity of different taxes and also the administrative simplicity of different taxes and their physical implications. 'That's what makes tax reform complex, but you can't just look at that one characteristic of taxes in isolation.'
Opposition industrial relations spokesman Tim Wilson labelled the roundtable a 'tax hike summit' saying Australians 'didn't vote' for GST reforms.
'So far, all we've had is proposals for tax hikes. It's a tax hike summit from Treasurer Jim Chalmers. You know, initially it was a productivity one,' Mr Wilson said on Sky News.
'I've heard lots of proposals to raise taxes. I haven't heard many proposals about how they plan to cut taxes and drive productivity growth and improvements in the economy.'
The discussions are set to be held over three days from August 19.