News Room Archive

Tax Nation: Business Taxes and the Federal–State Divide

Reportage of the release of the BCA/CTA Tax Nation report as published in various newspapers including The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Age, and the Herald Sun.

“Tax needs to be an integral part of any move to reform federal–state relations more broadly,” he [Michael Chaney] said.  Our survey confirms there are too many taxes being levied for comparatively little return, but at the same time the system involves considerable paperwork and compliance costs for business – large and small.  “The question we now ask is whether this is sustainable when many of the overseas companies that Australian businesses are now competing with operate under much more streamlined tax systems.” 

From ‘Pre-Budget Tax Reform Push’ by Sid Marris & Scott Murdoch, The Australian, 10 April 2007, p. 15. 

‘The Business Council of Australia will use the results of a survey of 92 leading companies to continue its push for reform of federal–state relations and further corporate tax relief. A full Productivity Commission investigation into the effectiveness of Australia's business tax regime, as suggested by the BCA, would be a good start. The BCA survey shows that business tax is a clear example of how confusing and conflicting roles between the federal and state governments act as a significant drag on business and the economy.’

Excerpt from editorial titled ‘A Taxing Business’, The Australian, 10 April 2007, p. 7.

“It’s not that there are particular taxes but that there are so many of them,” Mr Chaney said. “And it’s not just the 56 taxes, it’s that they are different in each state so that you can end up paying 182 different tax arrangements. It’s just terribly complex and the annoying thing about it is a lot of those taxes don’t end up raising a lot of revenue.”  

From ‘Big Companies Plead for Simpler System’ by Fleur Anderson, The Australian Financial Review, 11 April 2007, p. 5.

“There are too many taxes being levied for comparatively little return,” said BCA president Michael Chaney. “The system involves considerable paperwork and compliance costs for business, large and small. We ask whether this is sustainable when so many of the overseas companies that Australian businesses compete with operate under much more streamlined tax systems.”

From ‘BCA: 56 Taxes a Company Curse’ by Tim Colebatch, The Age (Business), 10 April 2007, p. 1.

‘Businesses are collecting and paying at least 56 different types of taxes, creating an expensive paperwork quagmire for tens of thousands of companies. Australia now has an extraordinary 21 taxes raised by the federal government, 33 by state and territories, and two local government taxes.’

‘Taxes by the Dozen’ by Gerard McManus, Herald Sun, 10 April 2007, p. 10.