Meet the millionaires who pay no income tax

Peter Martin   Paying tax has become optional for 56 of Australia's highest earners. Newly-released tax statistics show each of the 56 paid next to no income tax in 2013–14, not even the Medicare Levy, even though each more than $1 million.

We are becoming a nation of landlords and serfs

Peter Martin   Forget the Australian dream, we just want to ‘get ahead’ now - with negative gearing.

Tax wine as beer 'and raise $2.9b'

Peter Martin   Taxing wine and cider the same as beer and lifting the rate by 5 to 6¢ for a glass of beer would raise $2.9 billion a year, much of which could fund tax relief, the Treasury has been told.

Modeller lauded by Coalition opposed negative gearing

Peter Martin   Negative gearing encourages excessive use of debt, lifts overseas borrowings and raises real interest rates, according to the economist whose work on the subject has been lauded by the treasurer Scott Morrison.

Economy picks up as income dives, budget weakens

Peter Martin   Australians shrugged off sliding national income and meagre pay rises to dip into their savings at the end of last year, delivering a surprise surge in spending that pushed up economic growth to 3 per cent, well in excess of the budget forecast.

ASSET CHECK

Labor plan encourages higher gearing

Daryl Dixon   If the tax-exempt proportion of capital gains is cut to 25 per cent, it will change the original objective of taxing only real capital gains.

Turnbull walks away from tax reform

Peter Martin   The Turnbull government has all but abandoned tax reform, ruling out most of the options presented to it, and zeroing in on just two: the excessive use of negative gearing and the excessive use of concessional super contributions.

Terrified on tax: why Turnbull will squib it

Peter Martin   So much for big reforms. Don’t expect Malcolm Turnbull to present a bold tax plan. He’s too scared of putting voters offside.

Bracket creep is code for cutting high-end taxes

Peter Martin   Many of us would welcome bracket creep if it meant actually getting a pay rise.

NOEL GALLAGHER

Bracket creep is 'no big deal'

Noel Whittaker   Tax reform is in the spotlight.

There's more than one way to kill negative gearing

Peter Martin   The big problem is the capital gains tax concession.

ASSET CHECK

Capital gain changes are more taxing than negative gearing

Daryl Dixon   The ongoing tax reform debate has created new difficulties for making medium and long term investment decisions.

Negative gearing losses biggest in ACT and WA

Peter Martin   The Australian Capital Territory is the nation's biggest loser according to a new analysis of tax statistics, with Western Australia a close second.

Morrison's tax change: From the poor to the rich

Peter Martin   The most shocking thing in the treasury analysis delivered to Scott Morrison on January 25 isn't the finding that a cut in income tax funded by a lift in the goods and services tax would boost the economy not at all.

Beware, the states are about to hike up taxes

Peter Martin   Now that a GST rise is off the table, expect state governments to do the tax reform that the Federal Government won’t.

$440,000 to model tax, but the results shouldn't be taken literally

Peter Martin   The government is paying private consultants $440,000 to model the effects of tax changes in an exercise the head of the Treasury says shouldn't be taken too literally.

Morrison: No GST hike this time

Treasurer Scott Morrison has conceded that an increase in the GST is extremely unlikely, saying it means the May budget will have room for only small income tax cuts.

What tax debate?

Peter Martin   Of all the questionable claims in the tax debate, the biggest it's that it's been a debate.

Why PM killed the white paper and probably a higher GST

The tax white paper is dead. So too (most probably) is an increase in the GST.

CAR FINANCE

Car packaging still worthwhile

Leasing a car through work is still worthwhile. The tax advantage is not as great as it used to be, but there are still savings for most people.

GST hike is a solution in search of a problem

Peter Martin   We need a clear goal if the attempt to change the tax system is to succeed.

Tax on luxury family homes rejected

Peter Martin   A government frontbencher has all but killed a proposal to apply capital gains tax to the sale of luxury homes by ruling it out before the Coalition even considered it.

Off the table: why the GST won't be lifted to 15 per cent

Peter Martin   So out of favour is the idea of increasing the GST that by the time the government releases its tax options paper in the new year a 15 per cent GST might not even be on it.

YOUR QUESTIONS

Capital gains tax may apply when you split units

George Cochrane   We live in combined flats as our permanent place of residence and neither one has ever been rented. We wondered if upon sale of either flat we will have to pay any capital gains tax? A.D.

ASSET CHECK

Push your savings up a gear

Daryl Dixon   Given the ongoing uncertainty about the future tax treatment of superannuation, investing in the family home and gearing investments now offer more certain benefits.

Be afraid, they are coming for your super

Peter Martin    Forget the GST – it's tackling the burgeoning problem of superannuation that will show whether the Treasurer is serious about fixing tax.

ASSET CHECK

Super proposals would make tax system less fair

Daryl Dixon   If superannuation is made less attractive, it would encourage the well off to over-invest in the family home and do even more negative gearing of investment properties.

ASSET CHECK

Savers under attack

Daryl Dixon   People relying on their past savings for their retirement income face being big losers in any increase in the GST tax burden.

BOURIS ON MONEY

Structuring your super for success

Mark Bouris   When the superannuation annual statements start landing in our mailboxes, inevitably there's discussion about how well super is performing. And if the results are poor, people say that super is not a worthwhile investment.