Tax Policy Objectives

1. Reduction of individual income tax rates with the top marginal rate being set at the same rate that applies to corporate taxes;
2. Elimination of bracket creep by incorporating the automatic indexation of all income thresholds;
3. Simplification of the tax laws;
4. There should be consistency of tax treatment for capital gains regardless of whether derived by an entity or individual and capital gains should be tax free after assets have been held for 20 years;
5. All taxes should be transparent.  Accordingly all inefficient indirect taxes (including payroll tax and land taxes) should be abolished and replaced with GST;
6. All tax rebates, tax offsets and credits to be refundable and all statutory deduction limits to be automatically indexed;
7. Separation of social security system and income tax system to avoid high effective marginal tax rates;
8. Federal and State budgets to be balanced each year with surplus collections to be returned to taxpayers;
9. Superannuation and retirement savings should be taxed at the point when they are received. There should be no taxes during the accumulation phase;
10. Common rules and definitions should apply across all taxation and related laws.