S3TC analysis

Originally posted by Tarvold: ↑

If you made the ATO trully independent they could look at absolutely everything without political bias even the most unappealing to the electorate.
Basing the taxes on the most efficient, most productive & even least inflation impacting taxes if that was appropriate.

So if they did a full, comprehensive tax review analysis of the Australian economy & started with a blank sheet of paper you may end up with some of the old ideas like getting rid NG, amending CGT, mining taxes or new ones like increasing GST, death duties, a transaction tax, scrapping franking credits etc etc.

The only parameter the government would need to provide was how much they wanted to spend each year for the next 5 years.
Changing the expenditure would trigger a change in the tax levels & that's where the political accountability would come in.
Especially if you had specific taxes for specific items such as medicare levy & healthcare costs.
I favour greater transparency by reducing income tax rates & increasing medicare rates with no net tax raised to better match the tax raised & expenditure made on health.
NDIS spend increases for example would have a direct impact on tax levels year on year.

What is popular is not always right & what is right is not always popular.

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thats a very thought provoking argument.... I can think of a few problems with such, for eg.:
the constant adjustment of tax rates and items which can or can't be taxed,
the problem of social or political acceptability of some tax measures,
the common belief that only elected people can make such important decisions,
accountability for tax practices and decisions, though this would remove politicians from the target area, and
the impact on govt spending decisions which might encourage some to spend more than revenue provides, eg Abbott's excesses and Morrison's profligacy, while others might feel constrained to avoid spending on major items.

I've often thought when determining how parliament might function without party politicians to unify a Govt, that it wold be best to have all Govt departments run by a panel of qualified experts. Science and education decisions should be made by those who actually know the system and how to provide the best outcomes for the nation, Energy production, refining, distribution and metering for retail consumption etc, should be managed by a panel of real energy experts, economist, industry and consumer representatives.

making Govt departments non-political would provide stability, certainty and ensure that only what is needed to supply all consumers with all we need rather than harebrained schemes that can be manipulated or even sabotaged for political points.

in sum, I think I get your point. any such change which removes inappropriate people from being in charge would have to be better. good suggestion.