| Dear Neville —
Today The Australia Institute and the CPSU have taken the unusual step of placing a full page ad in The Saturday Paper, featuring an editorial from… The Australian newspaper.
Why?
55 people earned more than a million dollars but paid no income tax in 2012-13. It’s been a problem for a long time. A Buffett Rule is a simple fair way to stop this from happening. It’s a way to make the tax system work like it’s supposed to.
Back the Buffett Rule for Australia
The Australia Institute produced a report earlier this year, commissioned by GetUp!, with modelling on implementing a Buffett Rule. It was part of a series of reports the Institute published looking at ways to solve Australia’s revenue problem. The revenue hole is a legacy of Peter Costello’s profligate spending and the permanent tax cuts he implemented for the very wealthiest Australians at the height of a temporary mining boom.
The Australian’s editorial backed the rule, and the unusual bedfellows don’t end there either – with the CPSU, Labor Party and GetUp! advocating for the rule. And now Joe Hockey has indicated that he’s looking at it too.
Add your support for a Buffett Rule for Australia
Our research shows that implementing a Buffett Rule for the top 1% of income earners in Australia would raise $2.5 billion in revenue each year. It would ensure the wealthiest Australians pay their fair share of tax (a minimum 35%) by reducing the value of tax loopholes that no one else can afford to exploit.
A change in this debate has the potential to shift billions from the wealthiest tax avoiders directly into the budget – and then the community.
Tell the Treasurer that Australians back tax reform, as long as it’s fair.
How Australia is going to raise revenue is one of the big economic debates of our time. Do we raise the taxes in ways that hurt pensioners, single parents, students and those who work in minimum wage jobs – like a higher GST, including on fresh food? Or through reforming the tax breaks and concessions, which overwhelmingly go to the wealthiest 10 percent?
Australians will back tax reform, but only if it’s fair.
Thanks for getting behind this idea. Together, we can change minds.
Ben |
