This report, by The Australia Institute’s Senior Research Fellow, David Richardson, shows that, according to ATO data, the equivalent of 21.6 per cent of Australia’s national income was run through a trust.

The latest ATO figures show there are 823,448 trusts with assets of $3.1 trillion, and total business income of $349.2 billion.

The flow of money out of these trusts is skewed heavily towards those on very high incomes.

People with taxable incomes of more than $500,000 account for just 0.43 per cent of the population but receive 51 per cent of all trust distributions. The 96 per cent of Australians earning under $180,000, still a high income, receive just 13 per cent of trust income.