Henry review best place to start
Jo Vandermark and John Pinniger’s insightful letters (6/11) clearly reflect the views of the majority of Australians, but the GST putsch has achieved a life of its own, driven by businesses that can claw back much of their GST. The only fair “compensation” is to allow the same GST refunds to Joe Blow, but that wouldn’t work, would it? Surely, abolishing the 120 taxes the Henry Tax Review identified as totally counterproductive would be a good start to reforming our tax morass. This needs to be combined with local and state governments being responsible to use their revenue powers, instead of crying “too hard” and perpetually putting their hands out to the federal government. Unfortunately, banks, big business and property investors who want to extend the GST while wallowing in the benefits the current regime delivers them seem to have the clout to ensure that genuine reform won’t happen.
Bryan Kavanagh, Mount Waverley