Maybe its time Australia introduces a range of new taxes such as Super profits Bank Tax and a Death Estate Tax and clean up the mess of some non profits organizations paying no tax at all. Earlier this year the IRS revoked the status of 275,000 organizations that now have to pay tax why not take similar steps in Australia. Although my ideas are not new the millions of dollars in political donations by banks to the major political parties means my wish is simply that a cold hearted wish.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=240239,00.htm

I can't believe you guys calling for more taxes. Talk about the slaves applauding as the chains are put on.

Talk of a fairer tax system will continue to be vain while ever no-one is able to say what would constitute a fair tax in the first place: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard149.html

Ms S
So governments are under the control of banks, and therefore we need more government control to protect us?

Methinks you answered your own question, Everald, when you observe that stamp duty is still being collected despite solemn commitments from all the States to eliminate it. If politicians can’t gather that low-hanging fruit, how should we expect them to fare with far more challenging ‘reforms’?

Negative gearing attracts a great deal of talk. I’m no expert, but I recall that when NSW Labor abolished it, rental properties became inordinately scarce, and rents went WAY up. At a time when it’s already bloody hard to justify any sort of long-term investment, making investment in property less attractive could have a serious downside. I wouldn’t touch that with a barge pole until we know LOTS more about the effects of arbitrary town planning, slow land release, complex building approvals, developer ‘contributions’ to infrastructure, and a good deal else. With housing prices so high relative to average annual earnings, buying a home is one of the very few ways the demos can accumulate valuable assets that aren’t heavily taxed; having paid off most of a $450,000 mortgage doesn’t mean you’re taxed as if you had nearly half a million in the bank. Not yet, at least, and don’t you start!

Compulsory super is a great idea, but it’ll take another 50+ years to wash through the system. There can be no such thing as ‘excess contributions’ until the balance is well over a $1,000,000: how much cash does one need to be retired for 30 years, starting, say, in 2020? Thirty years ago, average annual earnings were under $30,000. By 2050, average annual earnings will probably be ... $300,000? People need incentive to save for a more expensive future.

‘Death Duty’ is strong incentive for sick or elderly people to make sure they die broke. Does Australia suffer if parents pass on their house and savings to children, or charities? Forget it.

Australia doesn’t tax too little: we spend too much. Too many bureaucrats produce nothing for six-figure salaries, and the BER wasn’t a one-off. Leave be until AFTER minority government, okay?

"Australia doesn’t tax too little: we spend too much."

Bingo! Or rather, "we" don't spend too much - the government does! Is there any field of human activity they are not sticking their noses in? Is there any competence they do not pretend to have on taking office?

Most of their programs are at cross purposes with some other program, all of them are wasteful, and they are a natural prey to the special pleading of vested interests. Politicians don't even both disguising that the democratic process is just a scramble for mutual plunder.

If any business did what the states have done with GST and stamp duties, the directors would be in prison for a very long time for fraud. And if any business did what the Commonwealth and States routinely do with tax, the directors would be imprisoned for collusion and anti-competitive practices. How about "misleading or deceptive conduct, or conducted likely to mislead or deceive"? Oh that's right, that's illegal "in trade or commerce", not "in goverrnment or politics".

We don't need a discussion on how the government can raise more tax, can blight more areas of voluntary society for gossake. We need a discussion on how the coercive sector keeps getting away with claiming justification for government activity that has no basis in reason or evidence.

I kinda liked practice in one of the old Greek city-states. Anyone wanting to propose a new tax had to do so standing on a stool in the agora with a noose around his neck. If the motion was not carried, the stool was kicked away.

We need to recognise these people are violent frauds and should be treated as such.

When the US Federal Reserve (private banksters) came into being in 1913,the following yr the income tax act was initiated.The the ATO and IRS are nothing more than agents for the private banksters since banks own your increases in productivity and loan it back to your as debt.