How did Australia come to adopt such an unusual, infantile, and palpably unfair approach to inherited wealth?
How can Australian taxpayers/non-payers – and Australia’s remarkably craven/spineless governments – be persuaded to change it?
Peter Browne attempts to answer those questions in his essay, Syd Negus, the forgotten tax-slayer.
A key observation, when explaining why Australia went down such a silly path: (in abolishing rather than reforming so-called “death duties”)
perceptions were as important as facts.
A key reason why Australia should adopt a more intelligent, fairer approach:
“On current trends,” the (Grattan) institute’s Danielle Wood and Kate Griffiths write, “much of accumulated wealth in the hands of Baby Boomers will be handed down to the wealthiest Generation Xers, significantly exacerbating wealth inequality, and inequality of opportunity. Inheritances reinforce the advantages of having rich parents, such as better schooling, connections, and a greater ability to take risks because of a parental safety net.”
Click here to read Peter Browne’s essay, from Inside Story.
Footnote:
Yours truly is one of the luckier “ducks”, already-advantaged by my unearned good fortune in having been raised by loving parents who were financially solvent.
“Utter tosh” properly describes the notion that any taxation upon an estate (untaxed, an estate that further disadvantages those who are not heirs, already-advantaged) is somehow “evil”, or is “socialism gone mad”, or is “robbery”.
Further, it is mean-spirited, self-serving tosh, antithetical to any reasonable notion of Australia’s allegedly-central belief in the “fair go for all”.
This particular tosh is uttered by privileged people, and, alas, also by those who are too-easily gulled by privileged people.
Most Australian citizens do accept and understand that – as members of a civilised society – it is reasonable that some portion of their earned income should be paid as income tax.
It beggars belief (or it should beggar belief) that so many Australians do not accept that they ought pay any tax on inherited wealth – a windfall which they did not earn.
The pictured Pacific Black Ducks were photographed at Lake Monger on 31 August 2021. Photo is copyright Doug Spencer.