This paper proposes a targeted income tax cut for low-income workers by increasing the Low Income Tax Offset (LITO). The LITO is an automatic tax refund that low-income earners receive when they lodge their tax return. The paper reveals key beneficiaries would be young people and those in regional areas, with National Party electorates benefiting...

This statement estimates the revenue forgone through tax expenditures. It also provides data on how large tax expenditures and common tax system features are distributed across individuals and businesses.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of tax reform trends, offering cross-country comparisons and tracking policy developments over time. This edition describes tax reforms implemented in 2024 across 86 jurisdictions, including all OECD countries. It finds that governments increasingly implemented reforms to raise revenues for specific spending needs – most notably linked to population ageing.

This report suggests that Australia’s heavy reliance on personal income tax is unsustainable and will worsen without reform. Bracket creep is an automatic tax increase that occurs when income tax thresholds remain fixed while wages rise with inflation. This report proposes a straightforward solution: indexing personal income tax brackets to inflation.

Individual income taxes in Australia raise nearly half of federal government revenue. This note offers a new perspective on the efficiency and equity implications of the individual income tax system. The findings paint two starkly different pictures of horizontal and vertical equity in effective tax rates at high and low levels of income.