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Australia needs to seriously consider tax reforms to keep those over the age of 65 in the workforce, according to Alex Malley, CPA Australia's chief executive.
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CPA's Malley urges tax review
11 April 2014
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Speaking on 3AW radio, Mr Malley said the issue of Australia’s ageing population is something that must be addressed.
“It's not our fault that we are an ageing population. The ageing population needs to be respected and I think that’s a word that’s gone AWOL… We have got to factor them into our economy and we just don’t,” he said.
Mr Malley said engaging older workers is not only important for the economy but can also be a great move for individual businesses.
“The experience you bring as 60-plus-year-old is enormously different to a skill of someone who is just starting in the workplace. So we've got to build incentives for employers to also be working with us on these issues”.
“We know at this stage there's about 84 per cent of those age 70 and over are retired and about 63 per cent of the 65 to 69 year-olds are retired, so there's certainly in that band a large percentage of people that we can bring into the workforce by changing perhaps the structure of things and the incentive,” he said.
Adjusting the GST and payroll tax regulations could be one option to improve the participation rate amongst older Australians, according to Mr Malley.
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“If we were to go back to the wonderful GST question again and get that right, we can abolish payroll tax; so if we incentivise employers by taking away payroll tax by then saying if you appoint someone that is 60 or over, we will give a tax incentive for that”.
“We will also look at it from the pensioners' side. We can get to a better place,” he said.
“But the problem is… it's such a mess that we have in our tax system that no one wants to talk to it,” Mr Malley added.
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