Are You Tax Ready?

IF, like most of us you think your personal tax burden is a little too much to bear - consider this, in the 1950s Australia’s top tax rate was a staggering 75 per cent.

With around 100 days until the ‘dreaded’ June 30 tax period - specialist accounting firm, Alan McGillivray and Associates has released a few facts and figures which may surprise.

* There are around 800,000 companies in Australia. The top 2,000 companies, which earn over $100 million a year, pay almost two thirds of company tax revenue. Australia's company tax rate is 30 per cent, on par with the average rate in the world's ten largest economies and around 10 percentage points below the United States.

• Only 38% of people donated to a charity and then claimed the donation as a deduction.

• Around 65% of all taxpayers claimed some form of work related expenses – and 27% claimed more than $1000 each

• Personal income tax makes up close to 50 per cent of all tax received by the federal government. while ‘indirect taxes’ such as the GST, make up around 14.4% of federal taxation receipts.

• What kind of apple product you buy can determine whether you pay GST on it. For example, apple cider containing alcohol attracts GST; apple cider containing no alcohol but containing food additives also attracts GST; while apple cider with no alcohol and no food additives is GST-free.

• Around 90 per cent of all tax revenue comes from just ten taxes.

* At the start of the twentieth century, Australia's level of tax measured as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was at around 5 per cent. By the beginning of the World War II in 1939 that was up to 11 per cent, and by the end of that conflict in 1945 it had reached 22 per cent of GDP, about where it remains today.

For more information or comment:

Contact: 

Alan McGillivray & Associates

e: alan@mcgillivrays.com.au

ph: (02) 9821 2455

w: http://www.mcgillivrays.com.au