Taxation - Policy | Sustainable Australia Party

In short:

Implement a simpler and fairer tax system

  • Raise the personal income tax-free income threshold for Australian citizens to at least $26,000 a year
  • End multinational tax avoidance and profit shifting to low or no-tax jurisdictions
  • Adopt a Resource Super Profit Tax for iron ore, coal, oil and gas and establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund

Related policies

Policy Objective

Implement a simpler and fairer tax system.

Policy Actions (Federal & State)

To support this objective, Sustainable Australia Party will:

  • Raise the personal income tax-free income threshold to at least $26,000 a year, being $500+ per week
  • Transition all businesses to GST registration, while providing a GST-related ‘tax free threshold of $26,000 for all small businesses, meaning the first $2,600 in GST collected remains with the business
  • End multinational tax avoidance and profit shifting to low or no-tax jurisdictions to ensure multinationals pay their fair share of tax on sales in Australia, including by:
    • Prohibiting corporations from claiming tax deductions for any interest paid to related entities based overseas
    • Introducing a 50 per cent Diverted Profits Tax (or ‘Google Tax’) on profits sent overseas for corporations deemed to have arranged their business structure to avoid tax

  • Offer residential property buyers the option of paying current stamp duties or an annual land tax (also see Housing Affordability policy)
  • If the federal government fails to ban foreign ownership, increase housing taxes on foreign buyers (also see Housing Affordability policy)
  • Remove the 50 per cent discount of capital gains tax on taxable Australian property (non-principal place of residence), with existing arrangements to be grandfathered (also see Housing Affordability policy)
  • Abolish negative gearing on taxable Australian property, with existing arrangements to be grandfathered (also see Housing Affordability policy)
  • Reduce the company tax rate for local manufacturing to 25%
  • Adopt a Resource Super Profit Tax for iron ore, coal, oil and gas, the details of which would be determined following the implementation of a full resource audit and depletion protocol policy
  • Establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund to invest royalties from mining, gas and other natural resources for long-term national benefit
  • Introduce a simple and fair New Zealand-style retirement savings scheme including:
    • A universal age pension to all Australian citizens aged 65 and over, regardless of other income, but subject to standard personal income tax rates (also see Ageing policy)
    • Optional superannuation, with the current 12% employer superannuation contribution to be paid as either extra wages or superannuation. To encourage saving, like in New Zealand, those choosing superannuation would attract modest capped government contributions and/or tax concessions totalling under $1,000 per year and be means tested
    • End all other superannuation-related tax concessions including 15 per cent concessional tax rates for contributions and withdrawals, with current concessions to be grandfathered
  • Phase out tax shelters including offshore bank accounts
  • Increase tax on all excessive income and super-profits, through a more progressive tax system
  • Introducing an ACT-style 75% developer 'rezoning / betterment tax' in all states
  • Phase out state payroll tax as soon as practicable
  • Establish a national enquiry to formally investigate the best monetary system to serve an environmentally and socially sustainable economy (also see Economy policy)
  • Slow population growth then stabilise Australia’s population size as soon as practicable (also see Population & immigration (Australia) policy) in order to avoid the ongoing increases in taxes, charges, infrastructure and productivity costs caused by rapid population growth

"It used to be easy to deliver infrastructure when the government owned the land, but because our major cities are already planned and built up, there is no room to retro-fit new infrastructure without expensive additions like land buy-backs and tunnelling." William Bourke

"The unthinkable truth is that unless we invest in enough additional housing, business equipment and public infrastructure to accommodate the extra workers and their families, this lack of “capital widening” reduces our physical capital per person and so reduces our productivity." MacroBusiness

"There is no reason why Australia's ageing population should put health budgets under pressure, given the amount of untaxed wealth in the economy..." Australian Broadcasting Corporation