Treasurer Joe Hockey has warned Australian workers are paying the second highest level of personal income tax of any country in the OECD, leading to an "unsustainable risk" to government revenues.
But are we missing something?
Mr Hockey has given the impression that Australians are paying far higher taxes than workers in comparable countries. It helps to support his case that income taxes ought to be cut in coming years.
But he has failed to mention something significant: when compared with the size of the overall economy, Australians are paying one of the lowest proportions of tax in the OECD.
According to the Treasury, Australia's tax take is the sixth lowest out of 34 OECD countries.
Mr Hockey neglected to mention that fact. He has instead chosen to only focus on the composition of the tax pie because, even though Australia has one of the smallest tax takes as a proportion of GDP in the world, it relies more heavily on 'personal income tax' than most other developed countries.
But are we missing something?
Mr Hockey has given the impression that Australians are paying far higher taxes than workers in comparable countries. It helps to support his case that income taxes ought to be cut in coming years.
But he has failed to mention something significant: when compared with the size of the overall economy, Australians are paying one of the lowest proportions of tax in the OECD.
According to the Treasury, Australia's tax take is the sixth lowest out of 34 OECD countries.
Mr Hockey neglected to mention that fact. He has instead chosen to only focus on the composition of the tax pie because, even though Australia has one of the smallest tax takes as a proportion of GDP in the world, it relies more heavily on 'personal income tax' than most other developed countries.
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