Labor outlines bold plan to tax trusts, raise $17b

Sunday 30 July 2017

Labor leader Bill Shorten addressed the New South Wales Labor conference over the weekend, whereby he outlined his plan to tax trusts at 30% that would raise $17.2 billion over 10 years. Shorten said the extra revenue could be used to fund services such as education and health, while he stressed that the 30% tax plan would not be applied to farms or charity trusts. Shorten also said that his trust tax proposal would have no impact on 98% of wage earners and fits within Labor’s inequality agenda.

The AFR’s Laura Tingle is impressed with both the policy rationale and the politics behind Labor’s trusts plan:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.