Improving Australia’s taxation arrangements is no small task.
It is nevertheless a critical element in the post-COVID-19 response.

Unless we want to bequeath large public-sector debt burdens to subsequent generations of taxpayers and close off their options in responding to future crises, as we emerge from the COVID-19 recession we will need once again to restore our public finances.

Our current tax system is simply not up to this task and it is ill-suited to ambition of building a stronger and better economy and society.

In this policy paper we set our sights high and set out the fundamentals of the system-wide realignment of taxation that is required if we are to encourage investment, employment creation and high incomes growth while also retaining our commitments to the range of responsibilities we entrust to the public sector and to our national redistribution and poverty-alleviation objectives.

While this policy paper deals with structural reform of taxation arrangements for which a multi-year time frame is required, taxation policy also has a role to play in assisting in the near-term recovery. In our Submission to the 2020-21 Commonwealth Budget we propose a range of stimulatory measures which can also serve as a first step in the broader modernisation of taxation arrangements.