As we're warned that Treasurer Jim Chalmers is thinking about breaking pre-election promises about negative gearing, I’ve been wondering how a Productivity Roundtable became an Economic Reform Roundtable? And now it’s sounding like a Tax Reform Table!

Meanwhile, economists are warning Dr Jim to forget about negative gearing and concentrate on boosting the supply of housing.

In case you missed it, of late we’ve heard about wealth taxes, a cashflow tax, a carbon tax and some idealists have talked about raising the GST or at least putting it on more goods and services.

Of course, while we know a super tax for the ‘super’ wealthy super retirees is coming, we don’t know if unrealised gains are going to be a part of the taxing furniture for those with $3 million or more in super.

These other taxing ideas listed above have been put on the queue for getting a run at the August 19-21 roundtable in Canberra. Now negative gearing has been sent up the flagpole to see how many reformers and politicians want to salute this one.

In the real world, while a lot of Australians might be asking why tax is so important to productivity, let’s look at that one later. For now, we should see what the Treasurer is saying about negative gearing.

Here’s what the Tele’s Lachlan Leeming reports:

1. The Treasurer says he’s not going to “knock off” any tax idea before the roundtable.
2. Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said changes to negative gearing would “make almost no difference” to housing costs and supply.
3. Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Blacksays the roundtable has to help increase the supply of houses not tax property investors more.
4. The ACTU wants to “to cap negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions at one property, with existing investors grandfathered for five years,” Leeming revealed.
5. The respected but left of centre Grattan Institute wants negative gearing reform, and Labor listens to that outfit.
6. Opposition leader Susan Ley says the roundtable is set to be used to raise taxes.

As an economist, I know bad taxes or tax concessions can lead to money going into areas that are less productive than other uses of the funding. That’s why tax reform should get a run at the roundtable show later this month. But as the boss of the Productivity Commission Danielle Wood pointed out, there are five areas that need to be looked at if we want to raise the country’s productivity to create more income per Australian. These will be the way we test the productivity of the roundtable. Here they are:

1. New technology like AI and robotics.
2. Red and green tape that strangles businesses.
3. Better education for a more productive workforce.
4. What’s needed in growth industries, such as the care economy that’s also absorbing a lot of government funding.
5. And finally, tax reform. While Ms Wood mentions many taxes are up for change, she gives plenty of weight to “changing our corporate tax system to create sharper incentives for businesses to invest and expand.”

Wood concludes with: “Our work shows that if governments can rediscover their reform mojo, they can make a difference to productivity and economic growth. And that’s worth talking about.”

And I’ll throw one tax that normal business owners think is crazy, which none of the gabfest merchants are talking about publicly, and that’s the job-killing, innovation-smashing payroll tax.

Given the states get the GST, I’d love payroll tax to be killed. Just about all economists say we should have a 15% GST, which the Kiwis have had on all goods and services for decades, but that would take guts — real guts.

A bigger GST would not only help KO payroll taxes that KO jobs and punish employers for investing and innovating, but it could also help deliver income tax cuts.