By Sue Boland
If you believed the hype, you would think that everyone — rich and poor — will be better off under the new Howard-Costello tax plan. But it's not possible for something to benefit both rich and poor, both bosses and workers. A gain for one is always at the expense of the other.
The government's tax package is an attempt to trick workers into thinking that they will be better off after the proposed tax cuts, and people on government benefits that they will be better off after the so-called "compensation", despite the introduction of a goods and services tax (GST).
The heart of the tax package is the GST — everything else is there simply to suck us in. The GST, levied at a rate of 10%, will replace the federal government's wholesale sales tax and nine indirect taxes levied by state and territory governments.
Abolition of these taxes will cost $17 billion, but the GST will raise $27 billion in the first year of its introduction — resulting in a $10 billion increase in the amount of tax collected.
According to the government, this initial $10 billion is likely to increase over time because of the expansion of the service sector. This expansion will be fuelled by the further privatisation of government services.
The big question is: who is going to pay this extra $10 billion? The tax package papers tells us who is not going to pay: "The tax burden on Australian business will be reduced by more than $10 billion each year from 2001-2002".
It points out that businesses that export will be treated to a $4.5 billion decrease in costs because they will be eligible to have GST they pay on business inputs refunded.
If businesses won't be paying the extra $10 billion, then it means that workers and people on government benefits will subsidise business. In the section on small business, the tax package papers clearly state: "The GST is not a tax on business ... input tax credits ensure that businesses effectively do not pay GST on their inputs."
GST paid by business on raw materials, tools, electricity and rent is refunded. Business is exempt from paying the GST. The only GST payer is the consumer at the end, who pays a 10% GST on the total price of the product. No wonder the representatives of big business are waxing lyrical about the tax package.
Then there is the so-called compensation to suck us into accepting the GST. The income tax cuts, the 30% private health care rebate and the compensation to government beneficiaries and self-funded retirees is projected to cost $18 billion — all to be funded out of the projected budget surpluses over the next five years.
If the budget is not in surplus next year, will the government cancel or reduce the income tax cuts and the compensation package? How can we trust the government, when a deficit — which had been used to justify massive cuts to government services — suddenly turns into a surplus on the eve of the tax package launch?
Where did this surplus came from? It is a result of huge attacks on the social wage — the sacking of tens of thousands of workers, massive cuts to hospitals, schools, libraries, child-care, public transport and public housing, and the denial of government benefits to young people and redundant workers.
With the whole of the GST revenue being given directly to state and territory governments, and if all of the proposed income tax cuts are implemented, the federal government is likely to argue in the future that a lack of revenue means that more federal government services have to be cut back or abolished.
Income tax
The so-called benefits to workers from the income tax cuts are illusory. The increase in the tax-free threshold from $5400 to $6000 is tiny. Tax cuts for the majority of workers pale into insignificance compared to tax cuts offered to high-income earners. Workers on $6001-20,000 get a miserly 3% tax cut and workers on $20,001-38,000 get only 4%, compared to the 13% cut for workers on $38,000-50,000 and 7% for those earning $50,001-75,000.
This means that a large proportion of workers — perhaps the majority — gain a tiny tax cut while paying GST on every purchase they make — food, clothes, baby needs, funerals, the telephone bill, postage: nearly everything.
Furthermore, there is no mention in the package of tax indexation — i.e., adjusting income tax brackets to account for inflation. This means that over time, workers on average incomes will be pushed into the higher tax brackets.
Because it wants to cement workers into a low wage but high indirect tax regime, the government has ruled out income tax indexation. To allow indexation would concede that workers have a right to increased wages when prices go up.
The only genuine means of improving the standard of living of workers would be to grant wage increases to compensate for increases in the cost of living, index the income tax brackets and adequately fund government services. Instead, the government has draconian industrial relations laws to prevent workers from taking industrial action to gain decent pay increases.
Social security
The government is claiming that even people on pensions and welfare benefits will be better off under a GST because payments will be increased by 4%.
In addition, all retired people over 60 will be eligible for a one-off grant of $1000 when the GST is introduced. Self-funded retirees, including many workers living on superannuation, will get an additional $2000. Both of these payments will be subject to a means test.
The government claims its compensation package for people on pensions and benefits will more than compensate for GST-induced price rises. The tax package papers claim that under a GST, prices will rise only an average 1.9%.
The government does not explain how it derived this figure. It admits that food is likely to rise by 4.4% and clothes by 6.9%. Given that people on low incomes spend the bulk of their income on essentials such as food, clothes, rent and electricity, it is clear that people on welfare will be dramatically worse off.
Even in situations where prices should decrease, because the GST is lower than the wholesale sales tax, it is likely that businesspeople will pocket the difference. There is no compulsion on retailers to pass on the benefits of the withdrawal of wholesale sales tax.
There are some people who will receive no compensation. Workers under the age of 60 who have been made redundant will have to live off their redundancy payout and superannuation money until it runs out before being eligible for a pension or unemployment benefits. They won't receive the $1000-3000. Young people who have been forced off Austudy or the youth allowance, into dependence on their family, will receive no compensation — nor will their families.
Exemptions illusory
Items exempted from the GST include health, education and child-care services, local government rates, water and sewerage charges and the non-commercial activities of charities and governments.
Health and education have been exempted because the government is promoting the private health and education systems while de-funding the public systems. The exemptions will prevent private schools and health funds becoming "uncompetitive" with the public sector.
While education is GST-exempt, this covers only tuition fees and accommodation at boarding schools. Parents and students will still have to pay a GST on books, stationery, uniforms, computers, sports equipment, excursions and food from school tuck shops.
The tax package papers say that "most health services will be GST-free" but admit that "the precise scope of the medical goods and services that will be GST-free will be subject to consultation following the election". Medical treatment that is not covered by Medicare will not be GST-exempt.
Only prescription medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will be GST-exempt. Sticking plaster, bandages, antiseptics, cough medicine, nasal spray and allergy drugs will attract a GST.
While hospital fees will be GST-free, other services within a hospital — such as the hire of a television and telephone and the cost of newspapers and hospital canteen food — will attract a GST.
Child-care will be GST-free, but only if provided by a recognised provider. With a straight face, Costello says that child-care services "should fall in cost [under a GST]". This is after the last Costello budget sharply increased the cost of child-care, putting it out of the reach of many workers.
While residential rents will not be subject to a GST, landlords won't be entitled to claim a refund on the GST that they pay on maintenance and repairs. They will inevitably pass on these costs as higher rents.
Financial services providers cannot charge a GST on most of their products and services. But because they are not entitled to input tax credits for any GST paid on their business purchases, they will pass on the cost as increased charges.
Local council rates, water and sewerage charges are to be GST-free, but other services provided by local councils, such as rubbish collection, recycling, recreation and cultural activities, building applications, licences and the use of municipal swimming pools and other sporting facilities and council cemeteries, attract GST.
State government charges attracting a GST will include motor vehicle registration fees and fees for the use of national parks.
The main form of "compensation" for people who live in rural areas will be cuts in the price of diesel fuel and petrol. However, the cuts will apply only to businesses, not to workers and pensioners who live in rural and regional areas.
Registered businesses, including farms, will receive a refund for all petrol purchases for business use; operators of road transport vehicles will receive a 25% reduction in the cost of diesel fuel; and hospitals and rural businesses will get a reduction in the cost of diesel for generators.
The main beneficiaries of this "compensation" will be the big mining and agribusiness companies, while ordinary workers and pensioners have to pay a fortune in fuel to travel to work or to the bigger towns for access to government and banking services.
Business
In what amounts to a "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" agreement between business and government, the tax package papers indicate that big business can look forward to a reduction in company tax from 36% to 30% and a reduced capital gains tax.
There is no attempt to crack down on corporate tax evasion. The hint about a "crackdown" on trusts indicates that the government may move against some of the tax avoidance schemes utilised by well-off professionals and contractors, while letting big capitalists like Kerry Packer off the hook.
The new state-federal financial arrangements, with the states keeping all of the proceeds of the GST and not being eligible for a proportion of federal income tax, could also have negative consequences for workers and people on benefits. State governments provide services such as hospitals, schools and public housing, but a proportion of the funding comes from the federal government on condition that states make special provisions for people on low incomes.
There will be no such conditions attached to the use of the revenue from the GST. State governments could react by dramatically cutting public services and devoting a large proportion of the GST revenue to handouts for big business.
Despite the fact that the government's tax package represents a $10 billion redistribution of wealth from workers and pensioners to big business, the latter still want more.
Editorials in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review described the tax package as disappointing because it has "given" too much to people on low incomes and not enough to business.
If the government gets away with using a GST to defraud working-class people, it will be one of the biggest transfers of wealth from workers to employers in this century. All working people should reject the GST.