Payroll tax is the levy that penalises a business owner for growing and hiring. Now NSW opposition leader Kellie Sloane is betting that voters (even those who’ve never run a business) can be convinced the tax is everyone’s problem.
The New South Wales ‘wannabe’ premier, Kellie Sloane, has hit upon a policy pitch for next year’s election. And unlike the Albanese Government’s “business comes second” approach that curries favour with non-business-owning voters, the state’s opposition leader has promised to make her state’s payroll tax the lowest in the country.
This is a pro-business policy and if adopted nationally, ultimately could produce a better economic life for not just business owners, but for the vast majority of Australians.
However, while this is a great policy idea, which will be applauded by business owners, it might not be appreciated by those who’ve never owned a business that gets slugged with one of the worst taxes imaginable. Yep, this is nothing more than a tax on someone who creates enough jobs to be ‘rewarded’ with a payroll tax.
Here are Sloane’s proposed changes if her team wins the 2027 election:
- The payroll tax threshold for paying the tax goes from $1.2 million to $1.5 million;
- The tax rate would fall from 5.45% to 4.75% for businesses with a total Australian payroll below $10 million;
- The payroll tax threshold would be indexed to inflation.
- 4,000 businesses would escape the tax.
- 25,000 businesses would face the lowest payroll tax of any state.
Sloane is thinking that if you make business success less tax-punishing, it might give incentives for entrepreneurial business owners to take risks with their money, meaning they invest more and create more jobs.
Sloane should also have a look at how the Offices of State Revenue around the country use something called “grouping” to increase the payroll tax paid by employers. It can mean if a family has multiple businesses, run by different members of the family, but say the capital provided for the business comes from the parents, all of the payrolls from the different businesses can be added together to ensure more payroll tax is paid.
This is a disincentive for business growth and diversification, which can be a great way to protect a business from going broke.
The problem for Sloane is that her rival, Premier Chris Minns is a formidable politician, but his government’s payroll tax regime is quite aggressive towards the state’s employers. However, getting non-business owners, which of course includes employees, to understand the pain and pressure on bosses of payroll tax bills isn’t an easy sell.
And the problem with this tax is that it’s an easy tax for states to impose and it’s why no state government or opposition leader can ever consider killing this job-destroying tax. To do that, it would require an enlightened federal government to coax state premiers to accept a massive tax reform package, which might include, wait for it, a 15% GST on most goods and services!
Clearly, payroll tax will never disappear but there’s no good reason to have low thresholds that capture too many small businesses, which might never grow because of it, or to avoid it.
By the way, the New South Wales government of 1927 dreamt up the tax, as Business NSW has revealed in a piece written by Elizabeth Greenwood. “In 1927, the New South Wales government was becoming increasingly concerned with the fact that the minimum wage wasn’t enough to feed the average family,” Greenwood explained. “Single men and married men without a family were being paid the same as men who had a wife and large family to support.
“So, a Family Endowment Fund (for the maintenance, training and advancement of children under the age of 14) was established and funded via a tax on wages.”
Payments from this fund were made to the mother of each means-tested family and it was such a winner of a policy that during World War II, after the federal government took over the states’ taxing powers, it then used the NSW model to create a national Child Endowment Scheme.
Then in 1971 the federal government gave the payroll tax option back to the states and the rest is tax collecting and job-killing history.
Peter, your concept that taxes are there to penalise success is a misconception that tear into the fabrics of civilised societies.
As an economist you are well aware that TAXES are not designed to penalize success and, in this case, business owner for growing and hiring. Any business owner does not grow and hires staff for philanthropic reasons. She does because there are opportunities out there that can be exploited to increase profits and to provide greater market penetration.
Taxes, as you well know but are afraid to admit, are the primary mechanism used to fund essential public services, redistribute wealth to prevent extreme inequality, and guide economic activity. They function as a “social contract,” providing public goods that the private sector cannot deliver efficiently.
Your assertion that Albo’s Government’s “business comes second” is a perception grounded on extreme views about the role of government in a democratic society. The Albanese Government has a proud record of continually highlighted that small businesses are the “engine room of the economy”. It is totally disingenuous and demonstrably false to suggest that the current government approach is based on carrying “favour with non-business-owning voters”. The Government, contrary to Sloane’s motivations, is motivated to ensure each sector of our society has adequate access to Australia’s wealth, has adequate access to essential services, and efforts are adequately rewarded irrespective if these rewards are obtained through labour and/or capital.
Sloane wants to alter Australia’s social contract by favouring business for purely political reasons with the unfounded and demonstrably false promise that the lowest payroll tax the country, if adopted nationwide, could ultimately “produce a better economic life for not just business owners, but for the vast majority of Australians”.
Where are the data to demonstrate that outcome? The international literature is awash with highlight income and wealth inequality as major concern on many fronts, from social cohesion to business development. Historically, and thanks to Neoliberalism, over the past 40 years, wealth is being accumulated faster in fewer hands. We are quickly going back to medieval times. Sloane wants to accelerate that process.
Maybe she should suggest slavery as a policy, At least she would reveal her intentions instead of beating around the bush!
ABOLISHING THE PAYROLL TAX WAS GOUGH WHITLAMS PROMISE IN THE ELECTION HE LOST TO MALCOLM FRASER!
“Crisante, Dante (Division of Analytical Laboratories, Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, P.O. Box 162, Lidcombe, NSW 2141, Australia) .Retired chemist
Analytical Chemistry Specialist: During his time at DAL, Mr Crisante specialized in biochemical and elemental analysis, contributing to public health studies such as investigating the spatial distribution of heavy metals like lead in human tissue”
.
“Nationwide, lead exposure—and its accumulation in teeth and bones —is no longer a widespread crisis for most Australians ……since the removal of lead from petrol and domestic paints.”
IF THIS IS YOU , THEN THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS PUBLIC HEALTH !
AND , AS A HIGH TAX PAYER , FOR YOUR HIGH CONTRIBUTION TO “PUBLIC WEALTH”!
.
IF NOT , I STILL RESPECT YOUR OPINION…..EVEN THOUGH I THINK YOU ARE WRONG !
DANTE CRISANTE ! A melodic and neat name that rhymes !! Crisante essentially means “golden flower” or “flower of gold,” symbolizing beauty, preciousness, and purity.
So….your WORK on ‘purity’ is really a culmination of nominative determinism then !!?
As a well educated and well informed and WEALTHY person [ which you must be or you would NOT concern yourself with Switzer’s field of Economics !!? ] I assume that you know that TAXATION is quite a “modern concept and IMPOST ” .
Prior to World War One ……. “The Great War” they called it …..they were optimists……they didn’t think that the same level of stupidity would ever prevail again and result in WW11 …….TAXATION was mainly LOW LEVELS of customs and excise duty…..Basic Consumer Goods: Typically exacted at a flat 5% value-based rate (e.g., on items like tea, sugar, or basic hardware).Luxuries: Rates reached 10% to 15% on higher-end imports like fine wine…………until South Australia had the ‘bright idea’ of introducing a State Tax in 1884
using a two-tiered system based on the source of the income:
1.25% (Threepence for every Pound sterling) on all income derived from personal exertion (wages and salaries).
2.5% (Sixpence for every Pound sterling) on all income derived from property and investment produce.[ No personal exertion ,risk or anxiety there then ! That’s sarcasm !]
[ Obviously a continuing theme for LABOR POLITICS ! TAX THE RICH set in early didn’t it]
Then they had a SECOND ‘bad idea’…..on December 18, 1894, the Constitution Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act granted the vote to women to vote in parliamentary elections on equal terms with men , made South Australian women the first in the world to have the legal right to stand for election to parliament and allowed Aboriginal participation and South Australian women of all races, although Aboriginal women often faced barriers in exercising this right ! [ Cultural reasons ? ]
Western Australia followed closely behind, granting suffrage in 1899, while all other states eventually enacted the right to vote before the first federal election in 1902 , when
all the people eventually voted for a “Federation” , probably the third ‘bad idea’ !
.
Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .
Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 [NOTE WELL : An amount of 156 Australian pounds in 1915 is equal to approximately $16,200 in today’s Australian dollars………………… AND FURTHERMORE………….An Australian resident taxpayer owes no basic income tax if their total annual earnings fall below the base tax-free threshold of $18,200. However, because of the automatic application of the Low Income Tax Offset (LITO), the effective income level below which no taxation of any kind is due is $22,575 for the 2025–26 financial year.
SO , DESPITE THE WHINGEING , THAT’S $6,375 “BETTER-OFF” THAN THE FOUNDERS ! ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Alas and alack ! Being “Federal” it soon got awfully worse !
In the 1950’s The top marginal personal income tax rate was 75% …but during the WW11
business taxes and ‘wealthy people’ REALLY got hit…….. In 1942, Prime Minister John Curtin’s government unified income taxes across the country and increased the top personal marginal tax rate to 92.5% . The “Lucky Country” indeed…. the United Kingdom did introduce a 100% Excess Profits Tax on businesses to ensure no company financially benefited from the war.!!!!! and yet , they finished up OWING America and Canada NOT ONLY THEIR ETERNAL GRATITUDE , but many “US$Billions” !
“We” and the rest of the Western World and all the other colonies REBUILT THEMSELVES based in “good old hard yakka” and the Capitalist Free-Enterprise System [ of Judeo-Christian-Inspiration ! ] into THRIVING ECONOMIES with wonderful living standards , ambitions and enterprises beyond measure !
Then “bad idea’ number 2 re-emerged…..and WELFARE became the ANCHOR or the BALL AND CHAIN that relentlessly extracted TAXATION from every available orifice and wallet seemingly “because it could” to fund “every Utopian delusion imaginable” and DRAGGED BUSINESSES BACKWARDS into ‘survival mode’ , and a good many , into oblivion !
No “protected , pampered public-servant” , however diligent , can even IMAGINE what difficulty a BUSINESS OWNER and A BUSINESS MANAGER have to cope with , because , truly , they have NEVER experienced the rigours of GRAVE , REAL WORK , REAL WORRY
and REAL RESPONSIBILITY towards their business , their employees and their shareholders and their own career…………because the survival of government is a given !
They lose OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY , not their own , and when they want more , they simply INCREASE TAXATION ! They even “invent reasons” like “intergenerational inequity” [ when they should use “covetousness or envy ]or ” housing crisis” [ which is actually down to excessive expectations , laziness and excessive immigration etc ] .
So…..NO DANTE ! Your Heart is in the right place but your argument is EXACTLY THE WRONG WAY AROUND and you are wasting your sympathy on the wrong people !
YOU SAY : “Crisante, Dante (Division of Analytical Laboratories, Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, P.O. Box 162, Lidcombe, NSW 2141, Australia) .Retired chemist
Analytical Chemistry Specialist: During his time at DAL, Mr Crisante specialized in biochemical and elemental analysis, contributing to public health studies such as investigating the spatial distribution of heavy metals like lead in human tissue”
.
“Nationwide, lead exposure—and its accumulation in teeth and bones —is no longer a widespread crisis for most Australians ……since the removal of lead from petrol and domestic paints.”
IF THIS IS YOU , THEN THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS PUBLIC HEALTH !
AND , AS A HIGH TAX PAYER , FOR YOUR HIGH CONTRIBUTION TO “PUBLIC WEALTH”!
.
IF NOT , I STILL RESPECT YOUR OPINION…..EVEN THOUGH I THINK YOU ARE WRONG !
DANTE CRISANTE ! A melodic and neat name that rhymes !! Crisante essentially means “golden flower” or “flower of gold,” symbolizing beauty, preciousness, and purity.
So….your WORK on ‘purity’ is really a culmination of nominative determinism then !!?
As a well educated and well informed and WEALTHY person [ which you must be or you would NOT concern yourself with Switzer’s field of Economics !!? ] I assume that you know that TAXATION is quite a “modern concept and IMPOST ” .
Prior to World War One ……. “The Great War” they called it …..they were optimists……they didn’t think that the same level of stupidity would ever prevail again and result in WW11 …….TAXATION was mainly LOW LEVELS of customs and excise duty…..Basic Consumer Goods: Typically exacted at a flat 5% value-based rate (e.g., on items like tea, sugar, or basic hardware).Luxuries: Rates reached 10% to 15% on higher-end imports like fine wine…………until South Australia had the ‘bright idea’ of introducing a State Tax in 1884
using a two-tiered system based on the source of the income:
1.25% (Threepence for every Pound sterling) on all income derived from personal exertion (wages and salaries).
2.5% (Sixpence for every Pound sterling) on all income derived from property and investment produce.[ No personal exertion ,risk or anxiety there then ! That’s sarcasm !]
[ Obviously a continuing theme for LABOR POLITICS ! TAX THE RICH set in early didn’t it]
Then they had a SECOND ‘bad idea’…..on December 18, 1894, the Constitution Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act granted the vote to women to vote in parliamentary elections on equal terms with men , made South Australian women the first in the world to have the legal right to stand for election to parliament and allowed Aboriginal participation and South Australian women of all races, although Aboriginal women often faced barriers in exercising this right ! [ Cultural reasons ? ]
Western Australia followed closely behind, granting suffrage in 1899, while all other states eventually enacted the right to vote before the first federal election in 1902 , when
all the people eventually voted for a “Federation” , probably the third ‘bad idea’ !
.
Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .
Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 [NOTE WELL : An amount of 156 Australian pounds in 1915 is equal to approximately $16,200 in today’s Australian dollars………………… AND FURTHERMORE………….An Australian resident taxpayer owes no basic income tax if their total annual earnings fall below the base tax-free threshold of $18,200. However, because of the automatic application of the Low Income Tax Offset (LITO), the effective income level below which no taxation of any kind is due is $22,575 for the 2025–26 financial year.
SO , DESPITE THE WHINGEING , THAT’S $6,375 “BETTER-OFF” THAN THE FOUNDERS ! ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Alas and alack ! Being “Federal” it soon got awfully worse !
In the 1950’s The top marginal personal income tax rate was 75% …but during the WW11
business taxes and ‘wealthy people’ REALLY got hit…….. In 1942, Prime Minister John Curtin’s government unified income taxes across the country and increased the top personal marginal tax rate to 92.5% . The “Lucky Country” indeed…. the United Kingdom did introduce a 100% Excess Profits Tax on businesses to ensure no company financially benefited from the war.!!!!! and yet , they finished up OWING America and Canada NOT ONLY THEIR ETERNAL GRATITUDE , but many “US$Billions” !
“We” and the rest of the Western World and all the other colonies REBUILT THEMSELVES based in “good old hard yakka” and the Capitalist Free-Enterprise System [ of Judeo-Christian-Inspiration ! ] into THRIVING ECONOMIES with wonderful living standards , ambitions and enterprises beyond measure !
Then “bad idea’ number 3 re-emerged…..and WELFARE became the ANCHOR or the BALL AND CHAIN that relentlessly extracted TAXATION from every available orifice and wallet seemingly “because it could” to fund “every Utopian delusion imaginable” and DRAGGED BUSINESSES BACKWARDS into ‘survival mode’ , and a good many , into oblivion !
No “protected , pampered public-servant” , however diligent , can even IMAGINE what difficulty a BUSINESS OWNER and A BUSINESS MANAGER have to cope with , because , truly , they have NEVER experienced the rigours of GRAVE , REAL WORK , REAL WORRY
and REAL RESPONSIBILITY towards their business , their employees and their shareholders and their own career…………because the survival of government is a given !
They lose OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY , not their own , and when they want more , they simply INCREASE TAXATION ! They even “invent reasons” like “intergenerational inequity”[ when they should call it “covetousness” or “envy” ] or ” housing crisis” [ which is actually down to excessive expectations , laziness , excessive immigration etc ] .
So…..NO DANTE ! Your Heart is in the right place but your argument is EXACTLY THE WRONG WAY AROUND and you are wasting your sympathy on the wrong people !
Without thriving businesses “we” will all end up poor…..but equally poor ! POOR CHOICE.
TREVOR.
“Crisante, Dante (Division of Analytical Laboratories, Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, P.O. Box 162, Lidcombe, NSW 2141, Australia) .Retired chemist
Analytical Chemistry Specialist: During his time at DAL, Mr Crisante specialized in biochemical and elemental analysis, contributing to public health studies such as investigating the spatial distribution of heavy metals like lead in human tissue”
.
“Nationwide, lead exposure—and its accumulation in teeth and bones —is no longer a widespread crisis for most Australians ……since the removal of lead from petrol and domestic paints.”
IF THIS IS YOU , THEN THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS PUBLIC HEALTH !
AND , AS A HIGH TAX PAYER , FOR YOUR HIGH CONTRIBUTION TO “PUBLIC WEALTH”!
.
IF NOT , I STILL RESPECT YOUR OPINION…..EVEN THOUGH I THINK YOU ARE WRONG !
DANTE CRISANTE ! A melodic and neat name that rhymes !! Crisante essentially means “golden flower” or “flower of gold,” symbolizing beauty, preciousness, and purity.
So….your WORK on ‘purity’ is really a culmination of nominative determinism then !!?
As a well educated and well informed and WEALTHY person [ which you must be or you would NOT concern yourself with Switzer’s field of Economics !!? ] I assume that you know that TAXATION is quite a “modern concept and IMPOST ” .
Prior to World War One ……. “The Great War” they called it …..they were optimists……they didn’t think that the same level of stupidity would ever prevail again and result in WW11 …….TAXATION was mainly LOW LEVELS of customs and excise duty…..Basic Consumer Goods: Typically exacted at a flat 5% value-based rate (e.g., on items like tea, sugar, or basic hardware).Luxuries: Rates reached 10% to 15% on higher-end imports like fine wine…………until South Australia had the ‘bright idea’ of introducing a State Tax in 1884
using a two-tiered system based on the source of the income:
1.25% (Threepence for every Pound sterling) on all income derived from personal exertion (wages and salaries).
2.5% (Sixpence for every Pound sterling) on all income derived from property and investment produce.[ No personal exertion ,risk or anxiety there then ! That’s sarcasm !]
[ Obviously a continuing theme for LABOR POLITICS ! TAX THE RICH set in early didn’t it]
Then they had a SECOND ‘bad idea’…..on December 18, 1894, the Constitution Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act granted the vote to women to vote in parliamentary elections on equal terms with men , made South Australian women the first in the world to have the legal right to stand for election to parliament and allowed Aboriginal participation and South Australian women of all races, although Aboriginal women often faced barriers in exercising this right ! [ Cultural reasons ? ]
Western Australia followed closely behind, granting suffrage in 1899, while all other states eventually enacted the right to vote before the first federal election in 1902 , when
all the people eventually voted for a “Federation” , probably the third ‘bad idea’ !
.
Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .
Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 Federal income tax was introduced into Australia in 1915 as a wartime measure to help fund the First World War . The Commonwealth applied a progressive system, with personal income tax rates ranging from 3% up to 25% , while companies were taxed at a flat rate of one shilling and six pence per pound sterling, equivalent to 7.5% .To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 To protect the public from “double taxation” since states were already levying their own taxes , the federal rates were low and only applied to higher earners , exempting most standard wage earners by setting the adult income threshold at £156 [NOTE WELL : An amount of 156 Australian pounds in 1915 is equal to approximately $16,200 in today’s Australian dollars………………… AND FURTHERMORE………….An Australian resident taxpayer owes no basic income tax if their total annual earnings fall below the base tax-free threshold of $18,200. However, because of the automatic application of the Low Income Tax Offset (LITO), the effective income level below which no taxation of any kind is due is $22,575 for the 2025–26 financial year.
SO , DESPITE THE WHINGEING , THAT’S $6,375 “BETTER-OFF” THAN THE FOUNDERS ! ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Alas and alack ! Being “Federal” it soon got awfully worse !
In the 1950’s The top marginal personal income tax rate was 75% …but during the WW11
business taxes and ‘wealthy people’ REALLY got hit…….. In 1942, Prime Minister John Curtin’s government unified income taxes across the country and increased the top personal marginal tax rate to 92.5% . The “Lucky Country” indeed…. the United Kingdom did introduce a 100% Excess Profits Tax on businesses to ensure no company financially benefited from the war.!!!!! and yet , they finished up OWING America and Canada NOT ONLY THEIR ETERNAL GRATITUDE , but many “US$Billions” !
“We” and the rest of the Western World and all the other colonies REBUILT THEMSELVES based in “good old hard yakka” and the Capitalist Free-Enterprise System [ of Judeo-Christian-Inspiration ! ] into THRIVING ECONOMIES with wonderful living standards , ambitions and enterprises beyond measure !
Then “bad idea’ number 3 re-emerged…..and WELFARE became the ANCHOR or the BALL AND CHAIN that relentlessly extracted TAXATION from every available orifice and wallet seemingly “because it could” to fund “every Utopian delusion imaginable” and DRAGGED BUSINESSES BACKWARDS into ‘survival mode’ , and a good many , into oblivion !
No “protected , pampered public-servant” , however diligent , can even IMAGINE what difficulty a BUSINESS OWNER and A BUSINESS MANAGER have to cope with , because , truly , they have NEVER experienced the rigours of GRAVE , REAL WORK , REAL WORRY
and REAL RESPONSIBILITY towards their business , their employees and their shareholders and their own career…………because the survival of government is a given !
They lose OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY , not their own , and when they want more , they simply INCREASE TAXATION ! They even “invent reasons” like “intergenerational inequity” or ” housing crisis” [ which is actually down to excessive immigration etc ] .
So…..NO DANTE ! Your Heart is in the right place but your argument is EXACTLY THE WRONG WAY AROUND and you are wasting your sympathy on the wrong people !
Without thriving businesses “we” will all end up poor…..but equally poor ! POOR CHOICE.
Regards TREVOR .
ps.
“Any business owner does not grow and hires staff for philanthropic reasons. She does because there are opportunities ………….and NEEDS TO BE MET “.
“Taxes, are the primary mechanism used to fund essential public services, redistribute wealth to prevent extreme inequality, and guide economic activity. They function as a “social contract,” providing public goods that the private sector cannot deliver efficiently …..BUT which could ALL BE MET FAR MORE EFFICIENTLY if they didn’t have to compete against SUBSIDISED GOVERNMENT ENTITIES while paying the wages of “civil servants” at all levels [ from pen-pushers to defence personnel to teachers and health-services and , ironically , the ATO and the Legal-System !! ] ……but then alternative employment would have to be found for all the excess staff NOT NEEDED in an efficient system ! ”
Until 1915………..PRIVATE ENTERPRISE WITH NO TAXATION was the “golden” RULE !!!
With PRIVATE ENTERPRISE wealth is earned and distributed ON IT’S MERIT , not equally , “just because you exist” !