http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/coalition-would-increase-gst-swan-warns/story-fn3dxiwe-1226630573824
The link is to a Swan statement saying an incoming Liberal government will increase it.
Why not?
First talked of by Labor before Howard put it in place, the roof has not fallen down as a result.
Tax reform has stalled only feeble efforts have been made so far.
Why not increase GST at a higher rate on high priced goods , but an over all increase, and kill some existing needling taxes?
Increase or cut services most I hope would rather increase.

Every time I have spoken of tax reform, even after mentioning saving current waste.
And highlighting that it is another issue, but one we should not ignore, the main direction of the thread is lost.
Lets look at the link, if it remains available, some are short lived.
Is a higher GST in its self a threat?
Has Britain's VAT Value Added Tax remained at its introduction levels? not sure what it is.
But with story,s telling us our country is being milked by tax avoidance I see, while no answer for avoidance GST at least taxes us all.
We know, surely, taxes will rise under the incomeing government, so why not roll up many with a 15% GST.

Belly, the GST is a ridiculous tax as it goes round and round the merry go round, and it only ever gets paid by the end consumer, as all other payees get their GST refunded.

Furthermore, it creates mountains of needless paperwork, and running a small business today is rarely possible without a book keeper, an accountant and a lawyer.

Furthermore, GST hurts the poor, as the poor require 100% of their income/benefits just to survive.

A far better alternative, which for some reason is off the table, is a true FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TAX, as unlike a GST that can only be collected once, a TT tax gets collected on every single one of the billions of transactions made every single day, and the best part about it is PEOPLE only ever pay a very, very small tax ONCE, but THEIR MONEY continues to collect tax.

A true TT tax would remove mountains of red tape from business, large and small, while providing huge amounts of extra dollars for all to spend which will stimulate the economy FOREVER.

It even has the potential to bring wages back to a more sustainable level, without effecting consumers finances, because if real wages were decreased by say 10%, wage earners would still be far better off than they are today, as a TT would see more dollars in their pocket, even if their wages dropped by 10%, because at the end of the day, wages are not important, it's what's left after tax that is, and a TT would see a huge increase in disposable incomes.

So increasing the GST is a very anti productive move in my view.

Increasing the GST would only be of benefit if it were to be the only Tax. If people don't want to pay more tax they can just vote Coalition instead of Labor, simple !

Brilliant idea Belly,

Now that the money they had in the bank has been spent, the national debt has been successfully grown from zero to $200 bn plus, forward commitments for NDIS, Gonski and NBN have yet to be paid for, not enough income from the Mining Tax and generally “no visible means of support”, why not pull some more money out of the economy to fund even more debt?

Here was I thinking you lot had already run out of our money?

I despair for our children and our grandchildren who will be left with your legacy of crippling debt, deficit, a sick economy and ruinous taxes from their hard earned income.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the current generation suffer the austerity consequences of their own actions rather than saddle someone in the future with them?

But I guess if you don’t accept responsibility you won’t mind if others get financially flogged?

Well done

spindoc,
that's one thing that leaves me speechless with the likes but especially Belly. They constantly waffle on about how Australian they are or would like to be but on the other hand they simply don't give a hoot how many much more decent Australians do it really tough because of the crook & incompetent outfits they support. Where has their decency & integrity gone ? How stupid does one have to be to be like that. Scary !