14 November 2024

Alternative perspectives and taxonomies of tax


When this report refers to the ‘tax mix’, we mostly mean the categories of tax according to their legislative basis or their mechanism of collection, sometimes referred to as ‘heads of revenue’.[50] For most of the analysis here, this is a suitable split of taxes into categories.[51]

The tax mix can, however, be observed and analysed through many taxonomies. This section briefly explores the perspectives of industries, age and gender cohorts as well as taxes faced over one’s lifetime.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

[50]       This term was inherited from 19th century budget reporting in Great Britain.  It has since been abandoned there but continues in Australia.

[51]       The ‘heads of revenue’ split is most problematic for company tax. For domestic shareholders, Australia’s imputation system operates such that ‘company tax’ is a pre-payment of tax on behalf of the shareholder. When a company, which is taxed at 30%, distributes dividends to a superannuation fund, which is taxed at 15%, the ‘heads of revenue’ recognition approach means that the superannuation fund is refunded the excess tax which was paid on its behalf. This gives the false appearance of a ‘negative tax’.
For historical data, the split into the heads of revenue is also the only readily available option for presenting tax back to Federation. The analysis shown in this section is limited by availability of data, which we have taken back as far as we can.