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The Henry Review; SENIOR TAX COUNSEL GARRY ADDISON OUTLINES CPA AUSTRALIA'S FIRST SUBMISSION TO THE GOVERNMENT REGARDING THE NATION'S FUTURE TAX SYSTEM.
THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT announced Australia's Future Tax System (Henry) Review on 13 May 2008 to encompass all federal, state and local taxes except the GST, interactions with the transfer system and certain aspects of the personal income tax system. The review will be conducted in several stages with a final report to be issued to the treasurer in December 2009. CPA Australia lodged its first submission with the review on 17 October 2008, recommending a range of reforms to enhance the equity, efficiency and simplicity of the Australian tax-transfer system, having regard to the major challenges faced by the system in the years ahead. Following is a summary of issues being considered by the Henry Review.
* The balance of taxes on work, investment and consumption and the role for environmental taxes.
* Improvements to the tax and transfer payment system for individuals and working families, including those for retirees.
* Enhancing the taxation of savings, assets and investments, including the role and structure of company taxation.
* Enhancing the taxation arrangements for consumption (including excise taxes), property (including housing) and the tax arrangements applicable at the state and local government level.
* Simplifying the tax system, including consideration of appropriate administrative arrangements across the Australian Federation.
The members of the tax review panel are Ken Henry (chair), Jeff Harmer, John Piggott, Heather Ridout and Greg Smith.
The review panel's agenda
In light of the review's terms of reference, the panel initially sought external input on four questions. What major challenges facing Australia need to be addressed through the taxtransfer system? What features should the system have in order to respond to these challenges? What are the problems with the current system? What reforms do we need to address these problems?
A treasury paper canvassed a wide range of issues relating to the current tax-transfer system to assist people In responding to the above broad queries. Some of...