Report
The final report makes 22 recommendations to government, including establishing a National Obesity Taskforce, reviewing food labelling and dietary guidelines, introducing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, restricting TV advertising, and supporting related health promotion activities.
Annual Report
The paper concludes that challenges confronting the determination of land value should not deter an impost on land and that land is a base among other forms of taxation that may be equalised to assist funding in regional Australia and New Zealand.
Working paper
The recent decision by the Full Federal Court in Chevron Australia Holdings Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [2017] FCAFC 62 is a watershed, not only in Australia but internationally. It provides important insights into how the arm’s length principle takes account of the economic,...
Report
State and territory governments can do more to improve the lives of Australians. The State Orange Book 2018 shows that outcomes vary between states across a broad range of areas. In many cases, states are different because their governments adopted better policies.
Discussion paper
This paper examines what has happened to government revenue in the last twenty years, the state of government revenue today and how we can reform our tax system to make it more efficient and equitable.
Discussion paper
The federal government is working with other countries, through the G20 and the OECD, to develop sustainable, multilateral responses to address the challenges to Australia's tax systems arising from digitalisation. This discussion paper explores options to move towards a fairer and more sustainable tax system...
Report
If the ultimate purpose of public policy is to improve wellbeing, then few areas of public policy contribute as much to the wellbeing of New Zealanders as the tax system.
Report
Taxes in New Zealand have risen four times faster than incomes in the 20th Century. Taxes now take more of our income than in almost any country outside Europe. New Zealand has become a high tax country. This report looks at how good a job...
Report
This inquiry provided an opportunity to explore in detail how different types of taxpayers, particularly individuals and small businesses, currently engage with Australia’s tax system and how they might like to do so in the future. This can help inform the federal government's longer term...
Policy report
This paper explores the hypothesis that growth of government has become self-sustaining through the emergence of a segment of the population that both enjoys sufficient direct support from government and is large enough that political parties shape policies to curry its favour.
Briefing paper
This briefing paper explains the Open Budget Index (OBI) in more detail and discusses the state of budget transparency, participation and oversight in Australia, regionally and globally.
Report
This project provides another example of the returns to government from small changes informed by behavioural insights. BETA partnered with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to reduce work-related expense claims by $2.2 million and increase tax paid by $0.9 million with a simple letter sent...
Briefing paper
In Australia’s tax and social welfare system, many women face effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) on work income which are higher than the marginal tax rates of the personal income tax structure. Even for some top income earners, high EMTRS may be produced. For example,...
Working paper
Although coworkers are spending an increasing share of their working time interacting with one another, little is known about how the coordination of hours among heterogenous coworkers affects pay, productivity and labor supply. In this paper, we use new linked employer-employee data on hours worked...
Briefing paper
Australia Institute research has consistently shown there is no correlation between lower company tax rates, employment or economic growth. This analysis shows that foreign investors will be the unambiguous winners of the proposed company tax cut.
Report
This report examines the broad trends within the Commonwealth tax system since 2001–02 and the risks they present. An awareness of these risks allows policy makers to work to ensure the sustainability of the tax system over the medium term.
Report
This research is the final report of the AHURI inquiry into ‘Pathways to Housing Tax Reform in Australia.’ It features real-world modelling and implementation time frames to steer tax settings that progress the efficiency, equity and sustainability of housing tax policy, and also presents meaningful,...
Briefing paper
This paper argues that it is evident that Australia’s attraction as a location to conduct R&D has diminished, with the net tax benefit available for non-refundables now being amongst the lowest on a comparison of international R&D tax regimes.
Working paper
We examine Australia's Mature Age Worker Tax offset (MAWTO), a targeted earned income tax credit of up to $500 to incentivize participation of older workers that existed from 2004-05 to 2014-15. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that MAWTO increased labor market participation by around...
Report
This report summarises and responds to stakeholder submissions to the issues paper released in May 2018. It highlights the lack of publicly available information to inform the review and lays the case for the AER to use its information gathering powers to request this information...
Overview