Today
Smaller tax refund this year? Check your savings account
Bank depositors have had much to celebrate as rates have stayed higher for longer. But with more interest comes more tax. Here are some solutions.
- Lucy Dean
Yesterday
The fastest-growing firms have one thing in common: AI
BlueRock’s Peter Lalor says the firm is using generative AI across the firm, while McGrathNicol’s Jason Preston is using the machine learning to identify patterns that humans would overlook.
- Edmund Tadros
This Month
Stage three tax cuts to be eliminated by bracket creep: PBO
The budget watchdog estimates the benefits of the tax cuts will be gone by the end of the decade as bracket creep drives personal income tax rates to a record.
- Michael Read
ATO patience runs out as small business tax debt hits $35b
The Tax Office has warned it is taking a firmer approach to unpaid debts, after going easy on stretched small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Tom McIlroy
October
Ground zero: Why these voters could decide the US election
In one of America’s poorest counties in Pennsylvania, it’s the working class who could tip the balance in the race for the White House.
- Updated
- Matthew Cranston
Costello backs negative gearing: ‘It’s not a concession’
Both the former treasurer and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton say negative gearing should be upheld as a basic principle of our tax system.
- Campbell Kwan and Nick Lenaghan
Government targets social media users who promote tax dodge schemes
Experts are being asked to weigh in as Canberra looks to deal with social media users encouraging others to take part in tax avoidance plans, as part of its response to the PwC tax leaks scandal.
- Edmund Tadros
How the ATO caught taxpayers cheating on ‘lifestyle’ assets
The Tax Office has provided The Australian Financial Review with exclusive details about some recent investigations.
- Duncan Hughes
Curtin bid is not a ‘Game of Thrones’ quest
Readers’ letters on WA Liberal candidate Tom White; how to halt Iran; AI’s double-edged sword; income tax hit; investor risks; divisive politics; and green steel.
September
Income tax hits 25-year high in Chalmers’ surplus
The treasurer’s second budget in the black has been underwritten by the highest share of wages taxation since before the GST was introduced in 2000.
- John Kehoe and Michael Read
China stimulus should stabilise iron ore price, says resources minister
Resources Minister Madeleine King says China’s latest stimulus package was unlikely to push prices higher, but it should help arrest the one-third fall seen since the start of 2024.
- Ronald Mizen
- Opinion
- Political leadership
Bill Shorten’s Labor legacy: tax, spend and a broken NDIS
Beyond the NDIS blowout, Shorten failed to build a new Labor economic growth project that was more aspirational for hard-working and over-taxed wage earners.
- John Kehoe
August
- Exclusive
- Federal election
Coalition to fund ‘aspirational’ tax cuts from axed Labor policies
Lifting the $135,000 tax threshold is one option being considered as the Coalition aims to help aspirational voters.
- Phillip Coorey
- Exclusive
- Superannuation
Keating warns on Labor’s $3m super tax
Jim Chalmers’ refusal to index the $3 million threshold for the tax hit has been described as “unconscionable” by Paul Keating in private talks with the industry.
- John Kehoe, Phillip Coorey and Hannah Wootton
Independents team up to oppose tax rise on superannuation
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is struggling to win political support for the biggest revenue-raising measure in his budget.
- John Kehoe
This philosophy-quoting taxman is going old school
Six months into the job, Tax Commissioner Rob Heferen has put businesses and individuals on notice he’s coming after $50.2 billion in money owed to the government.
- Tom McIlroy
Is it possible to pay no income tax?
It is nonsensical to spend money just to get a tax deduction because you’re still out of pocket.
- Penny Wise
July
- Opinion
- SMSFs
There is a simpler, fairer way to tax super above $3m
Australia will soon become the only pension system in the world to tax unrealised capital gains.
- Peter Burgess
- Opinion
- Opinion
The land of the fair go is taxing social mobility
Australia’s antiquated over-reliance on income taxes means that if you do manage to succeed, then that success is taxed heavily.
- Richard Holden
- Opinion
- Canberra Observed
Middle Australia is indeed the lucky country
A suite of new data sources has enabled the Productivity Commission to revise its measure of economic mobility. The result surprised everyone.
- Tom Burton
