Hi Yuyutsu

I agree. It doesn't seem fair that companies enjoy lower rates of tax than individuals and families. Which is why I'd like to see a FET used to equalise the tax for all entities. 10% all round sounds equitable to me.

We already have multiple taxes on money already taxed. eg. we pay the Goods and Services Tax on nearly all transactions with our income that we've already paid income tax on. We pay taxes on taxes sometimes such as Stamp Duty tax on the final sale price of a new home that has been charged GST.

My point though is that money leaving Australia doesn't help us as a nation. Particularly when it hasn't paid it's fair share of tax. A FET would not increase the tax burden overall but redistribute it more fairly.

Dear One,

The transaction-tax that you propose would arbitrary punish those who change their mind or whose circumstances change. Why should it matter how many times you move your money from one pocket to the other? You oppose money leaving Australia, but what about when the money came into Australia in the first place? It's not even Australian money: there are families overseas who entrust their savings, long after tax, to an Australian relative because Australia is considered safer, away from war-zones, then when they need their money back, you want to deny them part of it: what right have you to steal this money?

Also, what about foreigners who invest money in Australia? They already pay 10% tax on their Australian earnings, but you rather grab their savings capital just because it happens to be here. It's a certain recipe to make no one wanting to invest in Australia ever again and even for financially-able families never to come and live here, then only poor refugees will want to come.

BTW, neither the GST nor stamp-duties are a tax on money: they are taxes on the purchase of certain goods. While no tax can be fair, relatively speaking, income-tax is the fairest of them all. Lower rates? Sure, but this should come as a result of reducing expenditure.

I think that the overall level that we redistribute our income from the have's to the have-not's is currently adequate. The only problem about it is that it's mandatory, thus an immoral act of robbery, but once it is made voluntary, we should be happy proud to pay our taxes at their current levels.

One,

There are various reasons why this is a bad idea:

1 Anything that adds another level of red tape inhibits free trade, and often doesn't help the economy as well as becoming a de facto tariff on imports.
2 As many of our imports are machinery, these increase production costs and make our exports less competitive.
3 Most businesses and individuals can avoid this tax by simply having an overseas trading account, so the projected revenue is far far lower than proponents of the tax estimate.

The suggestion is kindergarten ideoligy.. Prices in au would go through the roof and render us into a fifth world.

Yuyutsu

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. For the record though
- I'm not opposed to money leaving Australia
- A FET is not theft. It's paying for services and security that our govt provides
- a 20% tax on earnings is modest compared to the company and individual tax rates
- Stamp Duty is partially a tax on a tax in the case of a new property. The materials used to build the property are charged GST. And Stamp Duty is applied to the full sale price. A part of that sale price includes GST. Therefore you get a tax on a tax.
- Income tax can be reduced more significantly by some than others. It's not in my opinion the "fairest of them all". A fair tax is one that's very broad based and applicable to everyone with minimal opportunities for avoidance.

doog

Do you have any supporting evidence?