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Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) has urged both sides of the political spectrum to address tax reform or risk plaguing the public for generations to come.
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CA ANZ calls for tax reform action
18 February 2022
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The professional accounting body is pleading for the federal government to act on tax reform and ensure that the tax system becomes more sustainable and supportive to critical services like health, education and aged care.
Michael Croker, CA ANZ’s tax leader, strongly believes that the time for superficial tax reviews is over and that tax reform is urgently needed.
“There’s been plenty of intensive reviews done in the past by various governments – many of the key tax issues are known and understood,” Mr Croker said.
“We can’t keep delaying reform just because it’s difficult and politically inconvenient,” he stated, “failure to have a plan has the potential to further erode confidence in the political process.
“Neither side of politics seems currently willing to address the elephant in the room,” Mr Croker said, “but Australians aren’t blind to the debt and deficit challenge facing whoever wins government.”
Mr Croker believes there are sufficient models readily available that the federal government could utilise to review the tax system, including the Hawke/Keating Tax summit approach and the revamping of the Henry Review.
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CA ANZ also detailed how the Treasury could be made to publish a blueprint of the tax system Australia needs for a prosperous and equal society.
In their pre-budget submissions to the federal government, the body outlined three difficult, but key topics that it feels the federal government needs to address in order to improve the current taxation system.
The first topic is related to increases to the rate and base of GST, which CA ANZ believes “doesn’t simply involve lifting the GST rate and expanding the tax base”. Instead, the body believes “compensation for low-income Australians needs to be on the agenda”.
“Importantly, State and Territory Treasurers need to be frank about the beneficial impact more GST would have on level of community services their jurisdictions provide,” the CA ANZ added.
Additionally, CA ANZ called for the Commonwealth and state governments to better work together, which it believes should involved streamlining and coordinating “service delivery and revenue raising systems across different layers of Government”.
Finally, the body is calling on the government to debate and review “whether current tax concessions remain fit for purpose”.
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