10 reasons the top-end tax cuts will further entrench inequality in Australia

The Government‘s income tax cuts will be implemented in 3 stages. The end stages which see the lifting and then removal of the 37% tax bracket altogether are the most expensive and unfair.

Here’s how the top-end tax cuts will further entrench inequality in Australia >

1 // Someone earning $41,001 will have the same tax rate as someone on $200,000 a year

The Government keep trying to tell us this is not a flat tax, 83% of all taxpayers paying the same marginal tax rate. Fair? We don’t think so.

2 // Most people will see no benefit at all

In fact, 60% of taxpayers get nothing from the government’s top-end tax cuts.

3 // Meanwhile, the rich will get even richer

These tax cuts are a big win for the wealthy. While most people won’t see any benefit from top-end tax cuts, high income earners will get most of the benefit — in fact the majority of the benefits flow to the top 20% of income earners. 53% of the benefit of the top-end tax cuts go to just 10% of income earners.

4 // Men get twice the tax cut women do… not that the Coalition Cabinet would notice

It’s not just low income earners who lose out. In fact, once fully implemented in 2024–25, women will only get half of the benefit compared to what men will get.

Maybe if there were a few more women in the Turnbull Ministry, someone would have piped up about that one…

5 // Already, the 10 richest families in Australia own as much wealth as the poorest 4 million Australians combined

Our tax system is designed to help everyone get a fair go, but the top-end tax cuts would do the exact opposite . They put more money in the pockets of the already wealthy while low income earners have to pick up the slack.

6 // It will severely undermine our progressive taxation system and cost billions.

The government is putting in legislation now for the top end tax cuts that won’t start until 2022 and 2024.

When fully implemented, the tax cuts remove $11 billion dollars in revenue from the budget in just the first year, money that could be going towards schools, hospitals and other services and infrastructure.

7 // Scott Morrison’s claim that the top-end tax cuts would benefit most Australians because the average full time wage is $82,000 is misleading at best

Australia’s median wage is $55,000, which means half of Australians actually earn even less. In fact, earning $82,000 would put you at around the top 25% of income earners — not exactly ‘average’.

In other words, nearly three out of every four working Australians earn less than the average full-time salary.

8 // Treasury claims the top-end tax cuts biggest benefits go to middle income earners, but their own figures prove that wrong.

When the plan is fully implemented, it’s really just the top 20 per cent of who benefit from these tax cuts most. And don’t just take our word for it, it’s in the Treasury’s own data.

9 // What a coincidence. The Prime Minister’s own electorate of Wentworth is the biggest winner.

In fact, the top 10 electorates that get the most benefit from these top-end tax cuts would all get at least one-and-a-half times more than the national average. So if the average Australian gets one dollar, the top ten electorates would get $1.50 (or more.)

In the Prime Minister’s own electorate of Wentworth they’d get almost double: receiving $1.92 for every dollar of benefit the national average receives.

10 // While the top 10 electorates are all in inner city Sydney and Melbourne, the biggest losers are spread across the country

The bottom 10 electorates all receive 77 cents or less, for every dollar received by the average household.

Whatever the benefits, or otherwise, of the Government’s overall tax package, the top end tax cuts in stage 2 & 3 are both unfair and fiscally irresponsible.

They should be blocked in the Senate > Add your name to the petition.

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