Tax reform is in the news daily. Calls for fundamental reform have become louder, but there are diverse views on the direction and scope of the reform that is needed. The Liberal/National Coalition Government has committed to a White Paper process on Tax Reform, which the Government has indicated will commence with the release of...

This paper is motivated by our attempt to answer an empirical question: how is private health insurance take-up in Australia affected by the income threshold at which the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS) kicks in? We propose a new difference de-convolution kernel estimator for the location and size of regression discontinuities. We also propose a bootstrapping...

This submission addresses Australian corporates’ compliance with tax requirements under the current law. Executive summary Most corporates pay the tax they are required to under Australia’s law. Some private groups, linked to wealthy individuals with complex group structures, display more aggressive tax behaviours and characteristics. Some multinational enterprises engage in complex profit shifting structures. These...

Outlines which OECD countries include or exclude food, health, education and financial services from their respective consumption taxes, along with various countries’ general consumption tax rate. Introduction At the time the Goods and Services Tax was introduced, health, education and financial services and some food items (mainly fresh food), amongst other areas, were exempted from...

This paper looks at the potential gains and impacts involved from extending the GST to private schools and private health insurance. Overview The Coalition Government's proposed amendments to the GST have been attacked for disproportionately impacting low-income households. But the GST doesn't have to be so regressive. By extending the tax to include private health...