There I was reclining on the old sofa on the verandah, listening to "The World Today", when Liberal Member of Parliament for Mackellar threw out with one single sentence everything that I'd ever learned about taxes and how and why we raise them.
The Australian tax system is in a mess and a reform is long overdue. Two very low-hanging fruit that would restore a bit of fairness to the system without throwing out everything and starting all over again are the rate of GST which hasn't been lifted since its inception on 1 July 2000, and an Inheritance Tax which was scrapped more than forty years ago.
And yet, when Liberal Member for MacKellar, Jason Falinski, who wants tax reform, was asked why he was not in favour of an Inheritance Tax, his answer was, "... because people don't die to avoid paying tax."
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That's the simplest tax reform yet: if you do anything that avoids paying tax you will be taxed; if you do anything that does not avoid paying tax you won't be taxed. Joseph Heller couldn't have said it better himself.
