Returning income taxation revenue to the states: Back to the future

Published on 01 Jul 18 by "AUSTRALIAN TAX FORUM" JOURNAL ARTICLE

This article examines the merits of taxation reform to return income taxation revenues in whole or part to the states. In 2016, the Australian Prime Minister, the Honourable Malcolm Turnbull MP, proposed an income taxation sharing arrangement between the Commonwealth and the states which would allow the states to levy a proportion of income taxation. This proposal was rejected by all Australian states (with the exception of Western Australia) at the Council of Australian Government (COAG) meeting in April 2016. However, once again, the issue has become relevant amid renewed calls for a more equitable sharing of Commonwealth goods and services tax (GST) revenue between the states. Indeed, the inequitable redistribution of GST revenue has contributed to renewed calls for states like Western Australia to secede from the Australian federation. Additionally, together with the continued deterioration of state revenue bases, the authors argue that the issue of restoring income taxation powers to the states is worthy of reconsideration and has a number of benefits in terms of subsidiarity. These include increasing state financial autonomy, and providing for a more stable, simple and predictable state budget framework that would result from a known revenue stream.

Author profiles

Prof Dale Pinto CTA-Life

Dale is currently Professor of Taxation Law in the Curtin Law School as well as being the Chair of the Academic Board at Curtin University. Dale is the author and co-author of numerous books, refereed articles and national and international conference papers and sits on the editorial board of a number of peer-reviewed journals as well as being the Editor-in-Chief of several refereed journals. He is a member of the Board of CPA Australia and is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law as well as being a Chartered Accountant, Chartered Tax Adviser and Honorary Life Member of the Tax Institute. He is also a Life Member of the Australasian Tax Teachers Association and the Australasian Law Teachers Association. Dale has been a registered tax agent for more than 25 years and was appointed by the Assistant Treasurer as one of the inaugural members of the National Tax Practitioners Board. He is a current member of the Board of Taxation’s Special Advisory Panel and the ATO’s Tax Technical Panel as well as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Economic Development Forum in WA. Dale is a member of the Tertiary Education and Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) Expert Panel in Accounting, Taxation and International Education. - Current at 13 August 2019

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