Understanding how petrol consumption responds to price changes and who bears the burden when prices rise is critical to both designing relief measures in times of volatility as well as setting petrol tax rates in normal times. This research provides evidence on how petrol consumption responds to price changes and how it varies across households.

Despite discussion about the benefits of indexing tax brackets to the rate of inflation, this paper shows Australians have been better off without the solution to ‘bracket creep’. The analysis reveals that if the Howard Government had introduced the current Liberal policy of indexing tax brackets to inflation, Australians would be paying significantly more tax...

With changes to the way trusts are taxed soon to be introduced to parliament, this research reveals that revenue equivalent to almost a quarter of GDP now flows through trusts. The report uses Treasury data which shows that trusts are overwhelmingly used by the wealthiest Australians.

This Impact Analysis Equivalent considers reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax arrangements. It sets out the problem being addressed, the proposal, the assessment outcome and the regulatory burden. The Department of the Treasury estimates the changes would increase average regulatory costs by $88.4 million per year.

Forty years after Paul Keating’s famous warning that Australia risked becoming a “banana republic”, this paper argues the country is once again drifting towards economic decline through rising government spending, protectionism and an abandonment of the reform spirit that transformed Australia in the 1980s.