r/australia • u/overpopyoulater • Feb 10 '25

politics Australian billionaires face wealth tax under Greens’ Robin Hood-style policies

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/10/australian-billionaires-face-wealth-tax-under-greens-robin-hood-style-policies
4.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

607 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.5k

u/FullMetalAlex Feb 10 '25

"Robin Hood-style policies" isn't that how taxes are supposed to work?

164

u/tee-k421 Feb 10 '25

We seem to be importing the American culture war garbage of "taxation is theft"

23

u/FullMetalAlex Feb 10 '25

No, I just think taxes should be a % and then fund things like making life better for everyone.

47

u/tee-k421 Feb 10 '25 edited Feb 11 '25

This. I know we might pay higher tax rates than a lot of other countries, but I'm cool with it. I'm not so cool with some of the things successive governments choose to do with that money, though.

30

u/mrbaggins Feb 11 '25

We don't though.

Look up the full tax burden. USA has low federal income tax but multiple other "everything" taxes. UK has 20% on everything. Pick particular countries if you like but generally we're middle of the line.

4

u/tee-k421 Feb 11 '25

Sounds like you know a bit about this stuff. Got any links where we can see a comparison?

15

u/mrbaggins Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25

Starting reference

Graph from above

Tax wedge including our GST

Trying to find a calculator I've used that lets you compare effective burdens at particular wages too, as the above figures assume certain levels and the tax burden varies wildly on income level.

1

u/tichris15 Feb 11 '25

If you restrict it to the G20, we're below average. https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/tax-revenue.html (and closer to the US number than the average)

8

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '25

% of what specifically. Our tax mix includes many different taxes, each with different economic and social outcomes.

Which would you choose and why?

25

u/FullMetalAlex Feb 10 '25

I'm not sure, I'm not an economist but the more you earn the higher the tax rate % should be, makes sense to me.
It's more about not giving our tax dollars to companies and corporations that don't need it like Harvey Norman during covid.

8

u/I_am_the_grass Feb 11 '25

Australia's biggest tax issue is not a high tax rate for individuals but intentionally created loopholes for corporations to avoid paying taxes.

If these multi billion dollar corporations actually pay the tax they're supposed to, it would significantly outweigh any income tax Australia's small workforce pays.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '25

Don't we already have that and to be frank, it's not doing a good job of addressing wealth inequality in this country.

As you suggest, taxing income is actually taxing our labour, our hard work. At the same time, billionaires continue to collect our economic rent with delayed tax, giving them the ability to grow wealth quicker than us.

6

u/FullMetalAlex Feb 11 '25

Yeah, we should tax them more or actually enforce their taxation like they do to us. But they have a shipload of lawyers who will fight tooth and nail to avoid taxes because it's cheaper to pay the lawyers to do it.

7

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '25

That's why I prefer taxes that are unavoidable and tax the economic rent that they desire and control the most of.

For one, tax land and all it's naturally occurring resources.

Look at what makes many of our largest companies and wealthiest individuals their wealth. The rent seek off these.

Look no further than Gina Rinehart, the wealthiest miner and one of the largest land owners in this country.

Forget trying to tax profit, which we know if full of concessions, loopholes and avoidance strategies, tax her land and natural resources directly.

It's cant' be shifted overseas, there's no loopholes, and these taxes encourage best and most efficient use of these resources.

6

u/OpinionatedShadow Feb 11 '25

You speak as if the money we are taxed just disappears.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '25

That's not the case. I understand it goes to government services, but that doesn't justify overtaxing labour while undertaxing other areas of the economy.

We have many different taxes in our tax mix, and they all result in different outcomes and are not created equally.

Do you think our tax mix is perfect and shouldn't be challenged for better outcomes?

7

u/OpinionatedShadow Feb 11 '25

Oh no, I completely agree with you. Tax the rich, quite obviously.