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Wealthy men would benefit most from tax threshold change: Australia Institute

Monday, 22 Feb 2016 15:55:34

The Australia Institute said bracket creep would exacerbate the gender wage gap. (ABC News: Gregory Nelson)

New analysis of potential changes to address bracket creep has revealed wealthy male workers would benefit the most, while women and low income earners would see little to no benefit at all.

Key points:

  • Australia Institute report modelled changing top tax rate of $80,000 to $100,000
  • Men would get about 75 per cent of the change
  • Someone on $102,000 would receive tax cut 10 times that of someone on $82,000

The Australia Institute has published an assessment of how increasing the second top tax rate of $80,000 to $100,000 would affect various wage earners.

It has revealed such changes would benefit average wage earners by just $1.70 per week and exacerbate the gender wage gap.

The Government is yet to commit to raising any tax thresholds, but it has voiced concern about average income earners paying more tax as a result of inflation and wages growth.

Bracket creep is when inflation pushes people's income into higher tax brackets, without an increase in purchasing power.

Matt Grudnoff, a senior economist with the Australia Institute, said it is something governments need to consider.

"If the Government is really concerned about bracket creep and they want to do something about it, they should be cutting things like the tax-free threshold, which then gives everybody a tax break, rather than cutting tax for high-income earners," he said.

"The Government has shown concern that people on average wages, that is people earning about $80,000, will move into that second-highest tax rate, so we think it is a realistic option.

"If the Government's talking about concern about that second-highest tax rate, then increasing that to $100,000 would be on the Government's radar."

Men would benefit most from tax bracket threshold change

The Australia Institute found that men would benefit most from bracket creep.

"It's revealed that it will be high-income earners that get most of the benefit of this tax cut and it will also be men who get about 75 per cent of the benefit of this tax cut, whereas women will only get about 25 per cent," Mr Grudnoff said.

Because of the way the tax rates work, if you just earn $80,000 a year you'll get very little of this tax cut

Australia Institute economist Matt Grudnoff

"And if these sort of tax cuts are put in place, this will increase that gender imbalance, not try and equalise it."

When the researchers examined who would benefit from changing the threshold, they found a sliding scale of benefit.

"Because of the way the tax rates work, if you just earn $80,000 a year you'll get very little of this tax cut," Mr Grudnoff said.

"So the people that the Government is saying that they're trying to help out will get almost none of this tax cut, whereas people on high income, people on more than $100,000 a year will get the maximum amount of this tax cut."

Most people 'will see no benefit'

According to the analysis, someone who had a pay increase and earned $82,000 would receive a tax cut of $90 a year, or about $1.70 a week.

Someone on $102,000 would receive a tax cut of $900 a year, or about $17 a week — 10 times more than somebody who was just pushed into that tax bracket.

If you increase the tax threshold to $80,000-$100,000 for the second-highest tax bracket that will cost the budget in excess of $1.7 billion each year

Australia Institute economist Matt Grudnoff

Mr Grudnoff said this measure would only fix bracket creep for those on a very high income.

"It doesn't fix it for the vast majority of wage earners — the vast majority of people who pay tax," he said.

"In fact it's really aimed at about the top 20 per cent of income earners or taxpayers, so the other 80 per cent will see no benefit from this.

"So if the Government is serious about bracket creep, then it needs to target it at all wage earners or taxpayers, not just disguise concerns about bracket creep in order to get in at a high-income tax cut."

Mr Grudnoff said it makes it clear average earners would not benefit from changing tax thresholds.

"It puts as a lie that average-income earners are going to benefit from this tax cut," he said.

"Rather, it's going to be high-income earners that benefit and this is really just a way of cutting high-income tax rates."

Mr Grudnoff said implementing this sort of change would significantly impact the budget.

"If you increase the tax threshold to $80,000-$100,000 for the second-highest tax bracket that will cost the budget in excess of $1.7 billion each year," he said.

"Now if the Government wants to spend money on bracket creep there are far better ways for it to spend that money.

"In particular, by cutting tax rates at the lower end which will allow all taxpayers to benefit from this."

AustraliaPlus


 

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