Boost GST and use funds to cut tax, OECD says
Boosting Australia's "currently low" rate of GST and
using the funds to cutting income and company tax
would be one of the best ways to boost economic
growth, the Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development says.
The suggestion, in the
fund's latest "Going for Growth" report, comes as
the government continues to sit on the tax
discussion paper it had planned to release in
December.
That 200-page paper canvasses arguments in favor of
lifting or broadening the GST in return for tax cuts
elsewhere. It was to have been used to encourage
public submissions to help the treasury prepare the
tax white paper due in December.
Unlike the Rudd Labor government that declared the
GST off limits when it set up the Henry Tax Review,
the Abbott government imposed no restrictions, while
promising that any changes to the GST would need the
agreement of the states and would be put to voters
before being adopted.
The OECD says
Australia's consumption taxes are "relatively low"
while its personal and business tax rates are high.
It calls on the government to cut company tax "as
part of a wider reform that also envisages raising
the currently low rate of goods and services tax".
It has previously said the GST could be raised to
between 15 and 18 per cent |
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The report also calls on
the government to ensure that planned spending on road
infrastructure delivers value-for-money and addresses
environmental concerns through user and congestion
charges.
It says Australia's educational
inequalities are relatively high compared to the OCED
average and commends the so-called Gonski school funding
formula that delivers money to schools on the basis of
need. The Coalition has committed to support the Gonski
formula only until 2018, setting aside no money for it
after that.
Source::
The Sydney Morning Herald , dated 09/02/2015......... |