Ever since the Turnbull Government announced its company tax cut package in the 2016 Federal Budget, MB has been opposed on the following grounds:
- Foreign owners/shareholders would receive the lion’s share of benefits because they are not subject to dividend imputation;
- The cost to the Federal Budget would be enormous (around $4 billion a year), which would need to be made up via higher personal taxes or cuts to government services; and
- Treasury’s claimed benefits to ‘jobs and growth’ are miniscule and uncertain, even with spurious modelling assumptions adopted.
Yesterday, The Australia Institute (TAI) released analysis confirming point number one: that foreign shareholders will be the major beneficiaries from any further company tax cuts:
Summary:
