One of the local dog walkers stopped to talk to me about this yesterday. While his dog sniffed around under the fuchsia bush he told me how he was not getting the $15 a week tax cut the government claimed he was getting.
Why? Well his rent has gone up by more than that alone. His energy bill has gone up. His food bills have gone up. He still has a car "but not for much longer". And yes, he is on superannuation but, because of quirks to the system, he actually gets less than some people on the pension.
This man's position is a little different because he spent years working in a remote area. He never had the opportunity to buy a house when others were buying houses. He has accepted that with good grace. It was part of the price he paid for doing something which he describes as "a useful job which contributed something".
We both agreed however that the much lauded "tax cuts" are not really cuts at all. Inflation has left most people worse off than before. Interest rates have taken more...and may yet rise again.
And then we have that thing called "bracket creep"... the more you earn, the more tax you pay and the higher the rate at which you pay it. It is a problem which government could fix but won't because there are political advantages in not addressing it. It is much more useful to be able to offer bribes at election time.
As I have said elsewhere our tax system is one of the most complex in the world. Our rate of personal taxation is also one of the highest in the world. We have a "goods and services tax" and taxes between as well as within states. No government has ever had the courage to try and do something about it.
I wonder if we could run a national competition for a new tax system? Would it work? Would people come up with some new ideas? Would we get rid of the dreaded bracket creep and find new and more equitable ways to deal with the need for money to run the country?
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