Unpopular Opinion High Income Earners Pay too Much Tax

Trying2SaveABuck on 11/08/2022 - 12:48
Last edited 11/08/2022 - 13:17 by 1 other user

"3.6 per cent of Aussies account for more than 31 per cent of tax revenue.

The majority of tax revenue comes from those earning $90,001-$180,000 - which makes up 36.8 per cent of tax paid."

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/ato-reveals-how-much-tax-t…

According to the above source 2/3 of all tax collected come from 20% of the 'working' population. - that is an excessive amount of lifting from the top categorises and imho it is unfair but the media wont ever report it.

We need to change the system to tax 'wealth' and not 'earnings' no one should be paying more then 20-25 cents to a dollar of tax on money they earn to the ATO.

my unpopular opinion is higher income earners pay too much tax - change my mind?

Poll Options

  • 617
    High income earners pay too much tax (I agree)
  • 654
    I disagree with your opinion
Financial

Comments

  • Mistredo on 14/08/2022 - 13:57
    +5

    I don't mind high taxes what I mind is we don't get enough for it compared to Europe. E.g., Germany has equally high taxes but child care is covered, health insurance has no gap payments, no tolls, free universities and so many other things.

    • Trying2SaveABuck on 15/08/2022 - 09:04

      fair comment and i agree if we got more bang for our buck it would be less an issue

    • xdigger on 18/08/2022 - 10:48

      But we have hundreds of billions of dollars for submarines as patronage to the US and UK, apparently….

  • TailsK on 14/08/2022 - 23:06

    I know a few people who are high income earners and pay high taxes. None of them have ever had a problem with the amount of tax they pay. The problem they have is how their taxes are used.

  • prhino on 15/08/2022 - 10:17
    +1

    Unpopular opinion

    Too many people complain about paying too much tax.

    Another thing I see a lot of is people bragging about the means by which they reduce their tax rate - sometimes illegally, or unethically.

    Just pay your darn tax and stop moaning about it - it's part of being an adult and being part of society.

  • ribze1 on 15/08/2022 - 11:01
    +1

    If you don't like paying so much tax then live somewhere else (you won't). Not a single high income earner is struggling cause they've been taxed so highly.
    Also, absolutely no one is paying a 47% tax rate, that is a fallacy. Firstly because of the nature of our progressive tax system and as i will mention below the ways that tax payable can be minimised.

    High income earners are also the wealthiest so get all of the benefits that that brings such as use of family trusts, negative gearing, CGT and SMSF concessions. The average PAYG worker on $80k can't really take advantage of much.

    Have a look at how well the US is going with homelessness if you want to talk about lowering taxes for high income earners.

  • ardstar on 15/08/2022 - 11:17
    +3

    I don't mind paying high taxes, if it meant that I could also actually enjoy the benefits of them.

    What is really unfair is that, as that our income is considered 'high', we get minimal child care rebate, zero family tax benefit, no first home ownership assistance help, and forced to take private health insurance. We are debt adverse so we don't take advantage of negative gearing, which is also available to lower wage earnings anyway.

    The amount of money we pay for child care negates a lot of my wifes income, and we question if it's worth it for her to be working. So it feels like double dipping, our taxes are used to fund lower incomes child care costs, but we pay extra for our own. But we do it out of principle and there is more satisfaction in earning your own money. I can see why a lot of lower income earners prefer to work less or not at all at the risk of giving up their benefits at that income bracket.

    • prhino on 15/08/2022 - 11:37
      +2

      Perhaps if so many people weren't so focused on minimising their taxes - sometimes illegally or unethically - you might not have to pay so much tax.

      Perhaps focus your 'resentment' on these people rather than low income earners.

      I believe there are more middle/high income earners avoiding tax than there are low-income earners avoiding working more.

      • Trying2SaveABuck on 15/08/2022 - 11:40

        perhaps if the taxes currently collected were spent better we could all pay less taxes. im not sorry to say anyone who things our tax money is spent in a reasonable and efficient way is an idiot so much money is wasted

    • [Deactivated] on 17/08/2022 - 11:22

      negative gearing, which is also available to lower wage earnings anyway.

      Negative gearing is basically losing money now to earn it back as capital gains later, which are taxed 1/2 as much. It's only available to people who can afford to lose the money now. It also has the effect of making people who earn a lot appear to earn much less.

      The reason lower income people have higher childcare subsidies is because it makes zero or negative sense for them to work otherwise, but the government benefits more having them work rather than not, so the extra productivity and reduced welfare they get via working more than offsets the higher subsidy, essentially their taxes/net cost to government pay their higher benefits, not yours.

      It's also important not to discount that lower income people spending money is the whole reason most high income jobs exist at all, so indirectly everyone benefits.

    • xdigger on 18/08/2022 - 10:53

      Why doesn't ATO target mining billionaires like Gina Rinehart to pay their fair share of taxes, instead of coming after the surgeon making $500k a year after ten years of medical school? What gives Gina Rinehart more right to get wealthy by digging dirt from our soil, over the surgeon who makes a living with his surgical expertise?

      How the billionaires through their control of politicians, think tanks and mass media have twisted the tax debate for us honest taxpayers is something that has baffled me for a long time.

  • whitepuma on 15/08/2022 - 13:24
    +1

    It's always an interesting topic this one, but i don't think they pay too much tax, i believe they should pay more.
    I understand that if you based it purely on the % they pay of their income the wealthy pay more in tax than the middle or lower classes…but that 's not enough the way i see it.

    Using paycalculator.com.au as my guide, here's the problem in each price bracket
    Before tax > Total tax > After tax
    50,000>7,500>42,500
    100,000>25,000>75,000
    150,000>40,500>106,500
    200,000>64,500>135,500
    300,000>117,500>182,500
    500,000> 221,500>278,500

    Now i know what you're thinking, those people in the higher incomes are being taxed to hell…..but, think about what impact that would have on their standard of living.
    Somebody earning 50,000 to then be taxed 7,500…the impact that will directly impact where they can rent, whether they can afford to eat healthy or not, any medical expenses, bills will get harder to pay, limited for education options, and the list goes on….that $7,500 can go a long way and could literally change their standard of living for that year.

    However, work your way up the scale, the higher you go on that pay scale the less of an impact it will have on their standard of living. Sure it will impact how much they have in the bank, how much they have to invest, how expensive their new holiday will be, or what luxury car they get next….but in the end of the day, they will still afford to live where they need to live, can afford to eat healthy, can afford the majority of medical expenses, and overall the earnings difference won't impact a healthy and happy lifestyle.

    So although they are being taxed alot already, i feel that figure needs to keep going up until everybody meets a more acceptable higher standard of living.

    I do agree with your statement though, we need to tax wealth, not earnings. It's pretty easy to mask earnings, and unfortunately the wealthier you are the easier it is to do.

  • frostman on 16/08/2022 - 09:43
    +5

    You're forgetting the biggest tax frauds are Small to Medium business.

    It's your kebab shop down the road, the pizzeria you attend at night, your local plumber, or even a fancy Asian noodle place in downtown.

    These guys never declare the cash they get, in fact I visited a restaurant few weeks ago and they gave me 10% off the bill if I paid cash.

    A middle eastern sweets place frequently tells me their EFTPOS is down.

    El Jannah Chicken in Granville NSW for a long period actually declined any EFTPOS so he setup an ATMx, instore for people to withdraw cash

    The next fraudsters are most of our politicians. From junkets, Property/Land purchase and you name it, all on the tax dollar.
    That fat buffoon of Queensland went to Japan (business class) apparently to lend support for Brisbane to be hosting the 2032 Olympics when families were shut down from visiting each other.

    The next fraudsters are aged care, NDIS and childcare providers. All over subscribing their services.

    So what you left with to carry this country through?
    The legitimate PAYG high income earners earning 170K+ paying their taxes duly.

  • trapper on 16/08/2022 - 11:09
    +1

    Everyone pays too much tax really.

    But if for arguments sake we kept the total tax take the same, and changed the brackets a bit to help out the high income earners… I mean how much more can realistically come from the low income earners? I mean it's called 'low income' for a reason.

    • Trying2SaveABuck on 16/08/2022 - 12:58

      low income earners? I mean it's called 'low income' for a reason

      fair point but no one is asking for more taxes on low income earners they are asking for more accountability for the current expenditure

  • xdigger on 18/08/2022 - 11:21

    Why doesn't ATO with their billion dollars annual budget target mining companies and billionaires like Gina Rinehart to pay their fair share of taxes, instead of coming after the surgeon making $500k a year after ten years of training? What gives Gina Rinehart more right to accumulate billions by digging dirt from our soil, over the surgeon who over the course of their lifetime may accumulate a couple of millions with their surgical expertise?

    Its astonishing how the billionaires through their control of politicians and mass media have twisted the tax debate for us honest taxpayers to fight amongst ourselves. The Australian people should demand accountability to check if ATO execs subsequently cross-over into lucrative mining roles, if RBA execs retire into multi-millions banking advisory roles, and if politicians have a cushy $800k NY/London trade job waiting at the end of their political career? All these calls for a federal Corruption commission, which the liberal party has fought so hard against in their decades long control of our country.

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