AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 2007 ANNUAL REPORT & BUSINESS REVIEW
ECONOMICS & TAXATION REPORT compared to 13% for high income people; q over the period from 1994-95, there was a 31% increase in the real mean income of low income people, compared to 32% for middle income people and 36% for high income people; and q overall, there appears to have been very little change in the distribution of income over the past decade. Note that the ABS excludes the bottom 10% because of methodological problems Meetings ACCI regularly met with the Treasury, Reserve Bank and Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet throughout the year to provide business input into the state of the national economy.
Inspector-General of Taxation David Vos at an ACCI Economics and Taxation Policy Committe Meeting, Canberra.
ACCI COMMITTEES & COUNCIL
FEDERAL BUDGET
Economics & Taxation Committee
Pre-Budget Submission
ACCI’s Economics & Taxation Committee met several times during 2007, where the following issues were discussed:
In December 2006, ACCI made a comprehensive and detailed submission for the 2007-08 Budget. The recommendations included calls to:
q the operation of the Commonwealth Grants Commission and federalism;
Fiscal Policy & Government Spending
q fiscal policy;
q return some of the surplus as tax cuts;
q ACCI’s Pre-Budget Submissions;
q reduce the size of government to enable the provision of larger tax cuts and reduce inflation;
q ACCI’s taxation reform priorities; q the ALP’s superannuation policies; q tax definitions of small business; q company tax; q superannuation contributions, including proposals for ‘soft compulsion’; q ACCI’s Pre-Election Survey; q ACCI’s revised Federalism Policy; q the Productivity Commission inquiry into local government revenue, including a presentation on the review by Judith Sloan from the Commission; q a Board of Taxation inquiry into small business compliance costs; q a Board of Taxation inquiry into foreign source income rules; and q productivity numbers. Guest speakers during the year included: q John Spasojevic, Secretary of the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC); q David Vos, Inspector-General of Taxation; and q Shadow Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen.
q conduct an Independent Review of the effect of the Budget on national saving; and q conduct revenue modelling in the Intergenerational Report, particularly relating to the Government’s superannuation changes. Taxation Reform q reduce the top marginal tax rate over a number of years to equal the company rate of 30%; q reduce the number of tax thresholds to no more than two; q index personal tax thresholds, preferably to wages growth; q reduce the burden of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) by introducing a “stepped rate” CGT where the per centage of gains subject to the tax reduces the longer an asset is held; q broaden the FBT exemption for childcare to cover all businesses; q reduce the complexity and compliance costs of the tax system; q reduce high effective tax rates on low and middle income earners; q provide for a tax credit for dividends paid out of foreign source income; q tax fringe benefits in the hands of employees; and
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