Our tax system needs to change

but not in the way the current Federal Treasurer would seem to believe. 

I am not an economist but it does not take an economist to know things need to change.  We cannot go spending beyond our means. Our standard of living is, quite simply, far too high. The Treasurer is doing nothing to change that. He appears to simply be intent on increasing taxes to pay for it. 

Taxes cannot be increased forever. We are already finding that "big business", the companies which actually run the economic engine of the country, are moving off-shore. It is "big business" which has the money to innovate and expand, not the "small business" companies or the "mum and dad" businesses. Of course the latter two can do some of it but they cannot pour millions of dollars in to develop a new process or build a new factory.  Tax "big business" too much and it will leave.

Employing people in this country is an expensive business. It is of course expensive in most places but here there seem to be all sorts of additional expense - like payroll tax, the superannuation guarantee, maternity and paternity leave and a "holiday leave loading". I still cannot get my head around the fact that many, many years ago I was actually paid extra to take my annual leave. Then there are all the training requirements that have nothing to do with the actual job but are concerned with "equality" and "awareness". These are another tax on business too but they are not always recognised as such.

We pay tax at the local level, at the state level and at the federal level and a "goods and services tax" on almost everything. All those things require oversight and constant vigilance to see we don't pay less than we should. The Senior Cat's estate has just paid to have a "tax return" done three and a half years after his death because the estate has not been "finalised". There has been no income into it for the last eighteen months but we paid an accountant to inform the tax office to inform the executors about what they already knew.

The government went to the election promising not to do away with what is called "negative gearing". Now the unions want to bring it in and are pressuring the government to do it. They say it will ease the housing supply but it has been tried in the past. It has not worked. Economists say it will not work. People who rent do not want it because rents will raise to cover the cost.

Somewhere there is an answer to all of this but it will require a very different mindset from the current one. Some unpopular decisions need to be made but I suspect our present Treasurer is too weak to even contemplate them.