Henry review and aviation

[Cactusjack]

Short haul: Henry tax review

SHORT HAUL

From: The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/)
April 30, 2010 12:00AM


THE aviation industry is not harbouring high hopes of a major win from the Henry tax review when it is released on Sunday. Two airlines and two industry organisations filed submissions to the review, but none contacted by The Australian this week was optimistic aviation-specific concerns would be addressed.

Submissions included accelerated depreciation for aircraft, lower corporate taxes to give international operators a more level playing field and greater clarity on the use of money collected through passenger movement charges.

What a shock,the aviation industry gets overlooked once again

[abc1]

We are talking about draconian Australia after all aren't we?
What made you think that aviation here would get a break?
Who is going to feed the plasma brigade?
Who is going to pay for the tag'' we escaped a recession because we were so smart''by dishing out billions to the riffraff?
Once upon a time for every 30 employed people, 1 person was on welfare, nowdays its 5:1 and out of that 5, three are public servants.
Does that tell you something?

the use of money collected through passenger movement charges.
Yea right.
Improve Sydney Airport just like all major international airports perhaps?
(eg the Tbus between terminals stops service at 21:20)I forgot, the Airport, its privatised, and for the better apparently(of someone's pocket and not for the convenience of the traveling public!What a sham!
What a disgrace!

[KRUSTY 34]

Ahhr C'mon. We can now all work untill we're 75!

That'll compensate for all the young'uns that are increasingly turning their noses up at what was once a revered and much sought after profession. :}

[Torres]

What did you expect - an aviation industry sobsidy? :ugh:

I have not read the recommendations but according to the media, companies will be able to accelerate depreciation and company tax will reduce - surely that must benefit airline companies?

Super is to rise 3%, that must benefit airline employees?

:confused:

[OZBUSDRIVER]

Torres, what happens if you cannot pass on your costs to your customers.

For the global companies??? Rudd says "Bluff" I remember 1974 and the oil exploration industry. Whitlam withdrew the dollar for dollar investment in exploration....Buses went out over night, crews were returned to base and sacked. Skeleton crews brought the gear back to Roma. Torres, surely you are old enough to remember the acres of gear stored in the paddocks along Mitchell Rd outside Roma? It took years for the industry to recover. It put back oil production by at least a decade.

Rudd thinks of his workers (BS...its a cash grab!) but thinks nothing of screwing with investors. The Mum and Dad investors and their super funds that will take a hit if they are exposed to Australian commodities markets.

Winding back the minerals boom...FIFO is the first to be affected. The market is factoring and the bill hasn't even made it to the Senate.

[Long John Silver]

If you're a pilot involved in FIFO.... might be time to start planning your alternate....

[The Chaser]

OFFS :ugh:

The industry will lobby hard in the negotiations for 'transition'.

In the end, the raw materials are worth a kings ransom. The gummint will fold a bit, so will industry, the election will be out of the way by then, a nice little compromise will be struck, Evelybodie haaaaaapie :E

FIFO have NOTHING to worry about ... wake up dudes and smell the posturing :rolleyes: ;)

[Torres]

OZBUSDRIVER. I think you are over reacting. The current Federal Government is increasingly proving to be immature, inexperienced, ineffective, indecisive - and incompetent. There is public debate, a potentially hostile Senate and probably an Election before any significant tax changes occur.

What concerns me is that the Henry Report appears to focus on revenue raising, rather than expenditure cuts. Whilst I haven't read it, from media reports it appears to be a further tax grab to fund the excesses of an incompetent, pork barrelling Government.

The increase in mandatory Superannuation levy is a good start. The next move is progressive introduction of a mandatory employee Superannuation levy, towards a future minimum target of 20% of gross employee income.

And yes, I am old enough to remember the gross incompetence of the Whitlam era but have no knowledge of what may have occurred in western Queensland.

I am also disappointed there is no wealth generation tax relief for senior citizens. How hard is it to give Capital Gains Tax relief to over 60s where assets are sold and profits invested in Superannuation? How hard is it to increase the maximum Superannuation contribution at concessional input tax rates for over 60s? Why does the Federal Government not limit the ever increasing level of State taxes, many counter productive to the needs of Australia? (e.g. Excessive State "Stamp Duty" on investment property purchases?)

I agree with the Chaser. Don't under estimate the power of the resources industry and indeed, the power of the Australian public. Sky News this morning is reporting News Poll results 49% Government; 51% Coalition and the PMs popularity has fallen eight points. This Government is increasingly looking to have a very bleak future.

Like the new tobacco tax increase, this is nothing more than a further tax grab to fund the excesses of fiscally incompetent and irresponsible Government.

The Tax Review has a long and probably very bumpy road before a compromise may become law.

Also, expect an Interest Rate increase today, probably around 0.25% and at least a 1% increase over the next twelve months.

[Rich-Fine-Green]

Increased depreciation and slight decrease in company tax sounds good but it's all end of year stuff and back end accounting for a business.

Increased costs, rent and 33% increase in Super expenses for employees is a direct grab of cash out of a business.

The original introduction of Super was a trade-off against wage increases. This new increase in Super is in addition to any future wage increases.

Cash flow has to increase to meet these obligations - All businesses (not just Aviation) will need to raise prices again to cover.

A slight positive for Aviation is a possible advantage for persons on the fringes of Aviation to invest in new aircraft. - i.e. Doctors etc. who may need a good 30% depreciation rate compared to the current 10% rate for aircraft. This may trickle some newer aircraft into flight schools and aero clubs for on-line rental.

[maralinga]

This country has taxed and over regulated itself out of virtually every industry we toiled in. Are we so determined to stifle investment in the few industries that still provide Australia with a first world standard of living?

We compete on a world level, although the word "compete" is fast becoming an oxymoron in this parochial, short sighted, country town we call Australia.

Maybe a reduction on taxation in aviation would facilitate overseas travel for some of our more "inward" looking to see what we are actually competing against and how valuable our standard of living is.

[Naverick]

I have posted this before, but I think it's appropriate to be reminded of one of the most profound quotes in political history and very apt for the current goverment's mismanagement of our taxes.

' The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money '

Mrs M Thatcher

[Explicitus]

I'm no economist; but I was under the impression that encouraging foreign investment was a good thing? I really don't understand the intricacies of international finance. :-( Those that do seem to mostly agree that foreign investment is good?

[an3_bolt]

....I still think the best thing we could do is remove a layer of government......

....my choice would be to ditch NSW government - simply leaving local council and a federal government.

Feds may not be the best thing around, but I think the NSW government holds the lead in teaching us how to be dysfunctional!!! (by only a small margin...):E

[ozineurope]

If you guys believe that Australia is a tax rich environment you should move to Germany! We pay tax on tax with a 19.5% GST, 9% religion tax (that's right you declare you are an xxxx religion and they slug you), 35% income tax, 5.5% reunification tax, 3% social security, 5% nursing home tax.

Believe me I'd trade the Australian tax system for this rort any day.

[Sillo777]

So let me get this straight, what we have is a super tax for the miners.

But what if say an overseas company comes down here and buys up say 50% of a company. And this overseas company happens to be a Steel producer. Surely they just sell the fines to themselves on the cheap, because thats why they are here - to control the price they get the fines for in the first place. Therefore smaller profit, if any for the mining company = bugger all tax...

Maybe I am wrong, but if you don't make a profit, you don't pay the tax - profit tax?

[Jabawocky]

I can tell you first hand that is what most foreign owned companies DO or try to do in some way and they eventually show a profit, albeit a small one.

I worked for one, and as part of the reason I do not any more, and now I have a small and successful company it really gets up my nose they pay less than I do!

Having said that I doubt that the big miners do it that way as it would be an easy target for the ATO, but you can be sure there are some little bits here and there.

[Torres]

"Transfer Pricing" is the term you are trying to come to grips with. That is when a commodity is sold between related international companies, at a price such that the profit on sale accrues in a low tax country, in in a third "brokering" country which is a tax haven.

Whilst recent events overseas tend to confirm that some graft, corruption and kickbacks may occur, the sale of Australian resources is suject to international open market commodity prices and sale contracts are subject to very close scrutiny by Australian authorities.

Australia's wealth is a result of it's commodities and the wealth of it's resource companies. One wonders at the intelligence of a Government intent on strangling the golden goose.

Perhaps Government at all levels should look at it's own expenditure and learn to live within it's means, rather than continually devision new tax grab schemes?

It may surprise you to know that an Australian worker on $50,000 per annum with his own home is now paying between 55% and 70% of gross wages in taxes, excise, import duties, stamp duty, fees, charges and levies to the three levels of Australian Government?

[Jabawocky]

Transfer pricing is the topic :ok: Goes on a lot more than many believe.

As for the rest of your post....sums it up pretty well indeed!:ok:

but holy cow!It may surprise you to know that an Australian worker on $50,000 per annum with his own home is now paying between 55% and 70% of gross wages in taxes, excise, import duties, stamp duty, fees, charges and levies to the three levels of Australian Government?

That is a statistic you just do not want to know.....suicide rates will climb if too many folk hear about that! :eek:

Have you any further statistics for income brackets in say $50k chunks?

Not that I really want to know.

[Torres]

It is a few years since I've seen the average tax percentage published and I suspect it is a figure no Government wants you to know.

A spread sheet estimate is easy enough to compile if you have your PAYG tax take; FBT asnd CGT; GST on virtually everything; Superannuation input tax (15% - now talk of increasing); the excise/tax rate on fuel, smokes and booze; Airport taxes; Bank debit taxes; State stamp duty on property purchases, vehicle registration, insurance policies etc; import duties on a range of commodities including clothing; State taxes including Payroll Tax; Local Government charges etc - the list is never ending.

Other countries may have higher rates of direct tax on earnings or higher GST/VAT, but do they have the number of hidden taxes Australia has?

And more importantly, does Australia get fair value for the taxes it pays? Looking at the home insulation program, school halls program, the National Fibre Optic network and particularly the state of our highways, health and medical services and education system, and the bureaucratic bullsh!t from far too many Government agencies that we must live with every day of our lives, I personally don't think so!

[Jabawocky]

Yes I know I could spreadsheet it roughly in under 20min.....but I am too scared to.:uhoh:

[ozineurope]

Intersting Torres.

But the roads and value for tax money here are no better - Autobahns are derelict and riddled with pot holes, the much touted public train system is shambolic, I catch the thing 5 days a week and believe me the stations are an utter disgrace (let alone not running on time), no major work done on public housing, public health is a joke with 1950s style care and facilities, and forget about getting anything in another language form the government.

Any thing you need from the government, local/state/federal requires a fee to be paid. usually in the order of 50€ per go, and that is only the start. It cost me 1300€ to convert my Australian DL to a german one!

So until you experience the tax system of another country I believe that the saying "the grass is always greener" is pretty apt, especially for here.

Anyway - nuff thread drift off to pay my reunification tax (21 years now it has been in, once meant to be ended in 1999).

[Sillo777]

So any profit over 6% is a super tax? That can't be correct...

[Torres]

But the roads and value for tax money here are no better - Autobahns are derelict and riddled with pot holes, the much touted public train system is shambolic, I catch the thing 5 days a week and believe me the stations are an utter disgrace (let alone not running on time), no major work done on public housing, public health is a joke with 1950s style care and facilities, and forget about getting anything in another language form the government.

I thought you were referring to Australia until your last sentence. Despite the English language requirement for Australian Residence or Citizenship, the Government persists in publishing information in approximately fifteen languages!

Stand by today for further Government spin on the National Broadband Service - a $25 million study. The cost is now estimated between $25 Billion and $35 Billion, or between $1,190 and $1,670 per Australian resident, despite the fact 80% of Australians don't need it.

Australian mining stocks have lost $16 Billion since last Sunday due to uncertainty about tax on the mining industry.

And let us not forget:

TAXPAYERS face a $1 billion bill to clean up the Rudd Government's botched home insulation scheme, which has wasted 2 per cent of its $42bn economic stimulus package.

After months of revelations of dodgy work and rorting of the $2.45bn program, the Government scrapped it on the basis of an independent report highlighting massive failings in its design and administration.

It is not a review of the tax system that is required, rather a review of Government that is now required.

[Jabawocky]

It is not a review of the tax system that is required, rather a review of Government that is now required.

And people thought it was time little Johnny went....... this lot are beyond description :mad:

Can anyone shed any light on anything they have done that was really good?

[lk978]

Ahh I love pilot's who don't know what they are talking about, too much time reading newspapers in the cockpit...

- FDI is a positive thing not evil

- These days the its owned by the chinese doesn't wash anymore its a global economy guys like it or not.

- Great idea Rudd let's tax companies that have already made the investment into the mines after they have becme profitable:ugh:.... Great idea guys way to attract more of that investment in exploration

- Transfer pricing has nothing to do with it

- Has Rudd actuall pulled anything off??? old mate howard was not as bad as you thought huh...

This is why their should be an IQ test before voting...

Democracy is when 2 idiots are more important than a genius

[Torres]

I don't necessarily to subscribe to all the views of the Reporter who wrote the following Herald-Sun article (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/woeful-rudd-an-inept-pm/story-e6frfhqf-1225853354998), however his summary of the Government's fiscal "achievements" seems to be fairly accurate!

Woeful Rudd an inept PM
• Andrew Bolt
• From: Herald Sun
• April 13, 2010 7:57PM
KEVIN Rudd spent his first two years in power smashing stuff.

Now, in this election year, he's spending up to $1 billion of your money to fix the damage.

That's right: Rudd is spending at least $1 billion to fix the havoc he's unleashed by handing out free insulation, splurging on overpriced school buildings, relaxing boat people laws, letting in an unsustainable 300,000 people a year and more.

Oh, I know. You think I'm far too hard on a Prime Minister with the air of a particularly methodical Christian dentist. But one disillusioned day you will hear from many who now work with him that how Rudd seems is bizarrely different to how he is.

I don't just mean that this publicly prissy churchgoer is privately a foul-mouthed, arrogant, paranoid and abusive control freak, but that many of his brightest ideas swiftly flop.

The truth is his uncanny skill at spinning has so far saved Rudd's reputation as a manager.

But check the substance rather than the image and you find he already qualifies as possibly the most incompetent prime minister since World War II. And, no, I haven't forgotten Whitlam.

Take Monday's announcement that his Government will now spend another $14 million on a taskforce to tackle the massive rorting of its $16.2 billion school stimulus scheme.

This so-called "Building the Education Revolution" spendathon was always destined to be a colossal waste.

To spend so much so fast on school halls, shade-cloths and a few classrooms and libraries was to blow a fortune on fripperies that had little to do with making children smarter or more civilised.

But even I couldn't predict the scandalous rorting which followed. In NSW, for instance, builders have charged at least $800,000 a time for more than 40 covered outdoor learning areas which official state government costings say should cost just $250,000.

From Perth to Sydney, schools have complained of receiving trash for your cash - useless canteens at half the size for twice the price, libraries with no shelves or with heating that would kill if the windows were closed; single classrooms costing double what you'd pay for a package home; and fire-fighting tanks that weren't asked for.

In Victoria, even a dying school with just two children was given $150,000, and from everywhere came complaints that BER developers were charging "management fees" of up to 21 per cent.

That's all your money, folks. Blown in what some now call the Builders' Early Retirement fund.

Now the Government is spending even more of your money - $14 million - on a taskforce to stop the looting of what's left of our $16.2 billion. Or to seem to.

Why did Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard only now announce this "safeguard" when it's been clear for months that your taxes were being wasted like never before in our history?

Three reasons, all squalid. First, Channel 7 last weekend mainstreamed this scandal, running a devastating report on its Sunday Night current affairs show.

Second, it's election year, and setting up a taskforce makes it seem like you're dealing with a problem, at least for now.

And, thirdly, although Gillard refuses to admit it she has got an advance report on this BER racket from the Auditor General that is likely to be devastating, and it's a fair bet she set up her taskforce to short-circuit the criticism she'll get when it's released.

This BER rorting is the biggest waste by Rudd so far, with anything up to $8 billion thrown away. But the more graphic symbol of his incompetence - of having to spend millions to fix what he caused by spending billions - is his free insulation scheme.

Again, it didn't make sense from the start for Rudd to spend $2.5 billion of your money to install free insulation in the homes of people who thought it wasn't worth doing with their own cash.

It's even crazier now we know Rudd barged ahead even after his own department was warned in writing a year ago that rushing out these freebies could attract shysters, burn down houses and kill people.

It all happened, just as Rudd was warned, with four installers now dead, 120 homes set on fire and more than 300,000 houses fitted with potentially lethal, incomplete or near-useless junk.

TO fix the disaster and compensate the losers, the Government may now have to spend anything up to $1 billion, with the National Electrical Contractors Association estimating repairs alone could cost $450 million.
It also means taxpayers must pay millions to take out insulation that Rudd made them pay millions to put in. It couldn't get crazier.

Correction. It already has. See, Rudd meant this giveaway to "stimulate" the economy and put people in jobs.

But the day before Easter (a good time to bury bad news) his Government announced, in effect, that his insulation scheme had killed off the very industry he'd meant it to help.

The Government said it would now give insulation manufacturers $15 million to help them stockpile all the batts and foil they can no longer sell, now that Rudd's scheme has stuck the stuff in a million more ceilings.

Those stockpiles of unsaleable batts are a clear sign that these once healthy businesses have been poleaxed.

Indeed, an industry which once predicted Rudd's free insulation plan would create 4000 jobs now says its collapse has cost the jobs of 6000.
Or even 8000, says Dandenong's Fletcher Insulation, which warns that every insulation manufacturer may shut this year, at least temporarily.

That's why Rudd has spent another $41 million of your money to help retrain the people sacked from an industry he spent billions to "stimulate".
And still this lunatic incompetence doesn't end. To fix this mess before the election, Rudd has switched his entire emissions trading team on to it.

Remember them? They're the 154 public servants Rudd originally hired to work on what until this year he called "the greatest moral, economic and social challenge of our time" - the man-made global warming he told us his great new green tax on everything would help stop.

But that tax is now blocked in the Senate, and public support for it is falling like a batt out of hell, so Rudd has put "the greatest moral, economic and social challenge of our time" on the backburner, and set his $57 million-a-year team of planet-savers to work on insulation instead.

And still this comedy is not done.

Rudd last weekend froze the processing of refugee applications from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan to stop the tide of boats he unleashed by weakening our boat people laws two years ago.

Boat people were a problem John Howard had fixed, cutting arrivals to just 18 boats over six years. Rudd unfixed that problem by going soft, so he's now luring in more than 10 boats a month.

THE Christmas Island detention centre is filled to bursting, and fixing this will cost hundreds of millions more of your dollars, with the 2000 people who've arrived just this year costing some $80,000 each to process.

Then there's the whole new "Department of Population" Rudd abruptly created this month to hose down the alarm he'd raised by not only letting in a record 300,000 immigrants last year, but by then happily endorsing predictions that our population will explode to 36 million by 2050.

And we still don't know how much in total we must pay for all Rudd's other failures - FuelWatch, Grocery Watch, the scrapped tender of his first broadband scheme, the lobbying for his new pan-Asian body, the botched Green Loans plan, the rorted solar hot water scheme, the "Ideas Summit" fiasco and the new nuclear disarmament body.

Still, more amazing than this waste is that Rudd retains the air of a man who knows just what he's doing, and is across every detail.

Watch him now sell his latest multi-billion-dollar plan - a health shakeup that Ken Baxter, former head of the premier's department in Victoria and NSW, warns will create a bureaucratic monster that will eat money.

But look at Rudd. See how assured and competent he seems, even as his last schemes still fall around his ears?

Amazing gift, that, and you're paying billions for it.

My personal view would be:

No new Government projects (including nationalisation of hospital funding):
No tax review or changes;

Until the present multi-billion dollar fiascos are cleaned up!! :suspect:

And if you are wondering about those Reserve Bank interest rate increases affecting your mortgage that Mr Swan seems to be saying we must have (reminds me of the ravings of a previous Labour Prime Minister), Federal and State Governments are borrowing heavily in the market to fund their deficits and on the basis of supply and demand, Governments must take some significant responsibility for the interest rate increases.

It is a fair bet the Labour Government will be returned at the next Election, albeit with a reduced margin and possibly a greater percentage of Independants. No Australian Labour Government has only served one term, since 1931.

Governments take the population for fools. Sadly, they are often correct!

[Jabawocky]

Thanks Torres....sums it up well again!:ok:

[ozineurope]

It is LABOR not Labour.

And how can anyone land apples from Spain into Germany whilst German apples rots on the ground? Sorry can only happen in Australia right?

[The Chaser]

Ken Henry was Howard's Treasury Secretary as well ;)

What do you reckon the Abbott & Costello Show [had they been left runnin the country & without adult supervision to boot] would have done with Henry's advice in the last coupla years? Spend it on Infrustructure programs? .... yeh right :yuk:

Andrew Bolt is as faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar right wing as a green nav light fitting. :} No balanced reporting there I'm afraid :p

Someone said it before, they are all "the same difference" these days :yuk:

[cbradio]

Jeez I've missed these threads! Must be nearly 3 years now ....

Andrew Bolt, a reporter?!:yuk:

At least Queensland should be alright now Johnny has been up here to sort out the rabble LNP! :)

[Teal]

I've always found the Forbes Magazine Tax Misery Index an interesting reality check for where Australia sits in the world on taxes. No doubt some will read it and weep, others will be laughing.

http://images.forbes.com/media/2009/04/02/AsiaMisery.gif

The Misery score is the sum of the taxes shown in the colored bars, at the highest marginal percentage in each locale. It's our best proxy for evaluating whether policy attracts or repels capital and talent. The countries at the top of the chart impose the harshest taxes while those at the bottom are the most tax friendly. The Reform column reflects a reduction in misery (a negative number highlighted in red) or an increase in misery in the past year. In most of the world local governments are usually funded from property taxes, which aren't part of the Misery Index.

[Xcel]

think that index tells us all.. move to the sandpit...

[Arnold E]

Governments take the population for fools. Sadly, they are often correct!
Thanks Torres, I appreciate that. (not)