Don't forget Freediver,most of this tax is company tax paid by the mining companies,so do you think it all should go to the shareholders and CEOs? Taxes under the Howard Govt have decreased,but the State Govts have not spent the GST to well.

I think it is a way for all Australians to share in the Nation's Wealth and building the infrastructure we desperately need.Rapid train systems to the regional areas for example,will take the pressure off house prices in our major cities.Efficient transport systems in our cities add greatly to productivity since we spend less time travelling and less on fuel.Sections of Sydney are often at gridlock.

With almost no wealth,we were in the past able to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge,Snowy Mt Scheme,and an extensive train system.In the last 50 yrs infrastructure has been ignored.We pay private companies to build our roads which are totally inadaquate before they are completed and pay a fortune in tolls.

Our Govts have become lazy and inefficient.The waste is mind boggling.If you get a Govt contract it is licence to print money.Just ask Therese Rein.

"Don't forget Freediver,most of this tax is company tax

How much exactly?

"so do you think it all should go to the shareholders and CEOs?

I'm not into punishing people for doing well and keeping big businesses running. Obviously not all of it though - the tax itself is fine. It's the total burden on society that matters most.

I agree with you about waste - first home owners, baby bonus, tank rebates etc...

About 9 billion comes from GST

About what it would cost to take the excise off petrol and gas.

Unfortunately you can't afford to tax companies and the rich too much otherwise they just move offshore.
(There is $2 trillion parked in British pounds off-shore for example. Taxing that would put the pound into free-fall as it would be moved to Switzerland (also with $2 trillion)or some other tax haven).

Singapore has been offering companies free land and no taxes for x years etc.,; If the companies make Singapore their SE Asian base.

Italy survives well without any income tax, just GST
The less income tax you have the more disposable income , therefore the more purchased and in turn more GST revenue. The Government wins every-time. (You do have to watch the National Debt but everyone seems to ignore that anyhow.)
I think the Government could probably make the tax free threshold $50,000 without loosing anything other than a lot of taxation department employees.

Certainly we should be getting rid of the more stupid State taxes such as Payroll tax. Why should Taronga Zoo pay payroll tax?

Now you've done it, michael2, you've mentioned Payroll Tax.

<open rant>

Payroll Tax, for those who have never run a business, is the tax you pay to the State Government for the privilege of employing one of their citizens.

Do you get a "thank you" for risking your hard-earned (and already-taxed) money in an enterprise that takes one more unemployed person off the street?

No, you get taxed.

The tax itself is based on total salary, plus super, plus grossed-up fringe benefits. If I employ someone at $60,000 p.a., I pay the tax on that amount, plus the mandatory 9% Super. So the State government gets around four grand for every $60,000 body I add to my staff.

When I first came across this, I queried its legitimacy. Because not all of that $60,000 goes to the employee, a big slice of it goes to the government in income tax.

In my naivety, I thought that it was not permitted for governments to impose a tax upon a tax, which this most clearly is.

"Oh no" I was told, "it's not a tax on a tax. It is just a convenient way of calculating an amount. If we didn't do it this way we would simply charge 10% on the net amount instead"

That's the way governments think. On those terms, the promise "no tax upon a tax" is a hollow log - every tax-on-a-tax can be excused the same way.

And the clincher? Payroll Tax was one of the bundle of State taxes that was to be swept away by the "never-ever" GST.

Did this happen? Of course not. I am sure their excuse now is that "if we didn't have Payroll Tax, "obviously" we'd have to charge 12.5% GST..."

Over the years we've let them believe that somehow our taxes are "their money". It's how they think of it, right down to the concept of the "government handout".

Our problem is not taxation, but the string of duplicitous, greedy, mendacious, self-centred politicians who treat us like a money tap that they can turn on at will.

</end rant>

A very nice rant
Suitable for James Valentine's (ABC 702 Sydney)Rant Hall of Fame.

Yes a stupid (double double) tax if ever their was one.

My personal rant is the double tax on fuel. In a country as vast as Australia a 38c a litre tax on fuel fires inflation everywhere, food production, distribution, manufacturing, imports, exports.
At the very least we should remove it from natural gas which we are drowning in; and from ethanol 'petrol' At least then, Queensland Cane Framers might make a dollar from it instead of Chevron-Mobil and other multi-nationals.

Another "pet" economic theory cum idea.
I rather like the Libs. concept of Future Funds. I think it could be better developed into something lasting, useful and initially non-inflationary
Say you give your favourite cause (Alternative energy technology, free dentistry, hospitals, science research,the ABC drama dept.) a 'stake' of $1 million to 1/2 to 1 billion $. You told them (whoever you gave it to-ABC Board etc.,) that they could only spend, in any one year, 50% of the investment income, the rest has to go back to the principle. Eventually the "Future Funds" would become self supporting (apart from the occasional accountant's flight to S.America). This is a way of getting rid of excess tax revenues, meeting election promised and future-proofing us against the end of the mining boom.
It would be nice to have a FF for Australian Venture Capital or even a $100,000 for my falling-down,brilliant, kid centred, local Conservatorium of Music.

Eventually we may do away with taxation all together if we don't run out of Western Australia to sell. (!?)

Petrol taxes do cause inflation any more than GST and other goods taxes. Income tax may cause less inflation, but you have less to spend anyway.

Petrol taxes need to at least cover the cost of building and maintaining roads. Not so much for cash flow reasons, but so that the government is not subsidising the road transport sector. Plus the price should go up more with carbon taxes.