Economy – Taxation

TAXATION

CDP objectives within a taxation system:

• Fund the necessary work and responsibilities of government.

• Create an adequate tax base to ensure that the burden of taxation does not fall disproportionately on lower and middle income earners.

• Ensure that all offshore business transactions attract the full tax burden and to prevent any business using offshore arrangements to reduce tax burdens.

• Remove the current disincentives for harder work, risk taking, wealth creation and innovation.

• Remove the current incentives for tax evasion, property speculation, the black economy and the ‘overseas brain drain’.

• Simplifying taxes to cut compliant costs and a full review of payroll and stamp duty taxes.

• All special purposes taxes to be accounted separately, audited with balances publically available demonstration expenditure purpose.

• Destruction of the pension payments over the decades with a view to recover aged pensions.

Personal and Family Taxes

• CDP supports a cut in the top tax rate to in order to restore work incentives. As a starting point for determining the top tax rate the CDP believes that the long term aim should be a tax and benefits system where no one faces effective tax rates higher than about 30%.

• CDP supports a return to the indexation of tax brackets to stop governments’ profiting from ‘bracket creep’.

• CDP will introduce income splitting for household members related by blood or marriage.

• CDP supports deductibility on interest accrued on owner occupied housing.

• CDP believes that this tax deduction for owner occupied housing should be capped to ensure that the benefit remains with the low or medium income earner.

• CDP continues to support retention of capital gain tax exemption on all owner-occupied housing.

• CDP supports the payment of a home maker allowance for families with young children to prevent both parents having to join the workforce and leaving the care of children to third party carers in their absence.

• CDP supports an enquiry into saving-exempt income tax schemes – to encourage savings.

• CDP supports low to zero tax on contributions to Superannuation and retirement payments.

• The Christian Democratic Party opposes any increase to the GST as it will inevitably be detrimental to the many people and families whom are already struggling to cater for their household needs and costs.

• The Christian Democratic Party opposes any plans to broaden the GST to cover the items which are currently exempt, such as fresh food, is proof that the government has absolutely no concern nor consideration to the long-term health effects of such radical measures.