The Taxpayer Editorials

Taxpayers Australia welcomes the Federal Government’s most comprehensive review of the Australian tax system in more than 50 years. The ‘root and branch review’ was first mentioned by the Treasurer, the Hon Wayne Swan in May 2008

When the Prime Minister announced a comprehensive review of the tax system, he called it a “root and branch” review of all Federal, State and local taxes. Despite this, the GST “rate and base” and the tax-free status of superannuation payouts for the over-60s were not part of the review agenda.

By the time you receive this edition of The Taxpayer, another financial year has come to a close and it is opportune to look back on the year that was.

On 16 July 2008 Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, the Minister for Climate Change and Water, released a Green Paper titled the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). The CPRS introduces the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) which essentially puts a price on greenhouse gas emissions not currently priced in the Australian economy. The Government has confirmed plans to implement the ETS by 2010.

The Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen MP, on 29 May 2008 released for public comment a revised exposure draft package that outlines proposed reforms to the registration and

The Labor Government inherited an enviously healthy surplus ($20 billion) and no debt so the task of honouring its election promises was a relatively painless exercise.

Courtesy of the 2020 Summit recently held in Canberra, tax reform is rightly back on the political agenda. The 2020 Summit proposed a substantial review of the tax system and the creation of a new Federation Commission.

Back on 24 September 2007, amendments to the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act relaxed the borrowing restrictions on trustees of super funds by allowing the use of instalment warrants to fund the purchase of a broad range of investments.

Now that the dust has settled on the Simpler Super reforms which came into operation on 1 July 2007, it’s an opportune time to look at some of the glaring anomalies which still have not been addressed.

Oops… have you ever gone into battle and achieved a victory, but for the wrong reasons? This is the situation in which the ATO finds itself in a recent case in the Federal Court.