With the federal election marketing campaign amplifying fears of new taxes, a Facebook submit from an Australian person lists 35 imposts it claims didn’t exist 100 years in the past.
However, many of the taxes within the submit (screenshot right here) had been in impact a century in the past and others don’t apply in Australia.
Experts advised AAP FactExamine the meme is probably going based mostly on the American tax system as a number of are in impact within the US however not in Australia.
The May 2020 submit, which has lately been extensively shared, includes a {photograph} of a person carrying a tough hat and is captioned with an anti-tax poem and a list of 35 taxes.
The list consists of excise taxes, federal earnings tax, federal unemployment tax, fishing licence tax, petrol tax, licence tax, inheritance tax, liquor tax, property tax, actual property tax, highway utilization tax, gross sales tax, state earnings tax, and automobile licence registration tax.
“Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was prosperous,” reads textual content on the backside of the list. “We had the largest middle class and Mum stayed home to raise the kids. What in the heck happened? Can you spell ‘politicians’? GO AHEAD… BE AN AUSTRALIAN,”
The meme has surfaced in numerous guises over time, together with a 2003 weblog submit and a UK variation in 2014. Additional taxes talked about within the UK submit embrace cooking tax, poverty tax and “a blooming Carbon Tax!”.
Professor Helen Hodgson, a taxation professional at Curtin University, advised AAP FactExamine that “the meme is based on the American tax system with a few Australian-specific items added”.
“We do not have a Federal Unemployment Tax – this is a US charge. I don’t know what the telephone usage charge tax or utility tax are, but these also seem to be based on a US tax,” she mentioned in an e-mail.
Prof Hodgson mentioned gross sales tax, luxurious items tax, service tax, inheritance tax, property tax, private property tax and actual property tax don’t exist in Australia.
Contrary to the submit’s assertion, excise taxes, federal earnings tax, state earnings tax and liquor tax all existed in 1920.
A gross sales tax was launched in 1930, however was discontinued in 1999 and changed in 2000 with the great and repair tax (GST), which is a worth added tax. Although related worth added taxes differ from gross sales tax as they’re collected at every stage of the availability chain.
Inheritance taxes, generally known as ‘death taxes’, additionally existed in 1920, however had been repealed by all state and federal governments between 1977 and 1984, as outlined in a 2006 tax historical past paper from the Australian Treasury.
Treasury additionally says state earnings taxes usually are not charged in Australia because the states stopped making use of them throughout World War II in return for reimbursement grants from the federal authorities.
Prof Hodgson notes the submit double-counts a number of taxes, together with itemizing excises and licences as classes and individually once more as particular person taxes. For instance, gas and alcohol taxes would fall into the excises class.
It can also be unclear whether or not the licence taxes within the submit are literally taxes. Licensing or registration charges paid in trade for a service can generally be thought of distinct from taxes.
A 2008 Treasury paper says it’s tough to outline what’s and isn’t a tax. A defining characteristic of a tax is that there’s “no clear and direct link between the payment of the tax and the provision of goods and services to the taxpayer”.
A price is usually thought of distinct from a tax if the cash goes wholly in the direction of the products or companies associated to the price.
For instance, leisure fishing licence charges in NSW go in the direction of bettering infrastructure utilized by licence holders, equivalent to fish-cleaning tables and stocking applications.
While the submit is fallacious on taxes utilized in Australia, it’s true the quantity of tax income governments gather has elevated over the previous 100 years.
Treasury’s historical past paper states Australia’s tax to gross home product (GDP) ratio in 1920 was underneath 10 per cent. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures present whole taxation income was 28.7 per cent of GDP in 2020/21.
Experts famous the tax income rise has been essential to pay for elevated authorities expenditure on important companies equivalent to well being, schooling, social welfare and defence.
The Verdict
The declare that a number of Australian taxes didn’t exist 100 years in the past is fake. Many of the taxes listed within the meme did exist 100 years in the past and others usually are not relevant in Australia.
False – The declare is inaccurate.
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