Tax

1. Too many policies.
2. One of the main policies poorly explained

Because Labor would receive a windfall from reducing the tax handouts, they felt they had to spend it all. Two or three key areas would have sufficed. Even if it meant only ending one of the tax handouts. However I lost count of how many amazing things they would spend the money on. It was overwhelming

Labor had a month to react. The Liberals were saying that Labor would increase taxes on pensioners. All Labor needed to do was explain it better:

• The SMSF franking credits are typically for people who have shares in banks, and the credit effectively gives a return of around 10%
• Nobody else gets such an amazing return on their investments (people in regular super funds get a return more like 2%)
• It is subsidised by the government
• If the cash payout is removed, SMSF people can invest their savings into anything else they want, that doesn’t provide franking credits

An ad could show a pensioner asking what she needs to do. Easy, just sell your bank shares and buy different shares. It is “self-managed” so you should be able to do that. Or accept that a 7% return is still amazing, just not 10%.

A smart advertising agency would make that ad, and show it to Labor, for next time.

Just an idea to help curb the massive waste of fast fashion.

Every second calendar year, place a 100% sales tax on clothing, shoes and bags. This will force people to consider if they will be using an item beyond 12 months, and if it will last that long.

When fashion changes every week, that is bad for the planet. Clothing has never been cheaper. In my childhood, quality and longevity were the #1 priorities, not cheapness or fashion. Brands became established because of quality. That is how it should work…

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