In exchange for some of the highest taxes in the developed world, we still:
- Pay out of pocket to see a GP
- Pay heavily for childcare
- Pay for university
- Pay tolls just to use major roads
- Get hit with payroll tax, GST, super taxes, CGT, alcohol excise, tobacco excise, and stamp duty
- Get slugged with the Medicare Levy Surcharge once income creeps a bit over $100k
- Don’t get family based taxation or income splitting
- Sit on enormous mineral wealth and somehow still get told there’s never enough revenue
And now the one broad protection ordinary Australians had against already high tax rates: the CGT discount, is apparently on the chopping block, dressed up as “intergenerational fairness.”
If the government wants to argue for higher capital gains tax, then at least be honest about it: this is a revenue grab.
If they want to talk seriously about fairness, start with:
- lower income tax rates and index them to inflation
- better spending discipline
- meaningful productivity reform
- better use of the country’s resource wealth
u/Bitman321 — 9 days ago