Many tax policies in Australia and comparable countries are based on a completely rational individual decision maker. However, recent evidence in the fields often referred to as behavioural insights (combining behavioural economics and psychology) have shown that people are neither completely rational not completely irrational. Rather, they exhibit predictable biases that reduce the probability of...

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating by way of wholly owned subsidiaries are responsible for an increasing percentage of global trade. This paper looks at how the existing rules based on the arm’s length principle allocate a MNE’s profit between the taxing jurisdictions in which it operates. It highlights the limitations of the arm’s length principle by...

There is increased interest in land taxation in Australia and internationally, as reflected for example, in the Henry report on tax reform in 2010 and the UK Mirrlees Report in 2011. This interest stems from the immobility of land as a factor of production, which stands in contrast to other factors such as capital and...

In the 1980s the Australian Personal Income Tax was highly progressive and family payments were universal. The system ranked well in terms of gender equity and female labour supply incentives. During the Howard years the progressivity of the rate scale declined dramatically despite rising inequality in wages, income and wealth, and the individual as the...

An Effective Marginal Tax Rate (EMTR) measures the loss resulting from income taxation combined with the withdrawal of a cash transfer or welfare benefit, applied to earning an extra (marginal) dollar of income. EMTRs are a result of the interaction of tax and welfare systems. Specifically, a high EMTR is a consequence of: - progressive...