An OECD claim that Australia has the world’s third highest effective marginal corporate tax rate made a great headline and pleased the federal government no end.
Problem is, the OECD didn’t take into account franking credits.
Problem is, we have a government who knows this, but plays dumb. And nobody is calling them out on it. Not the opposition, not the media.
Professor Kevin Davis, research director at the Monash Business School’s Australian Centre for Financial Studies, reckons the “real” corporate tax rate in Australia is below 20 per cent. He has written the headline rate could be cut from 30 per cent to just over 15 by abolishing dividend imputation.
Source: The New Daily