Tax Free Day

By Erica Thompson

April 23 2007 is Tax Freedom Day – the day you (theoretically) get to start keeping every dollar you earn.
The Centre for Independent Studies has calculated how many days we spend working for ourselves by comparing how much wealth Australians make with how much tax is collected.
In 2007, it falls on April 24, one day less than last year but still much later than a century ago when it arrived four months earlier on January 24.
CIS social researcher director Peter Saunders says by the late 50s it had stretched to March 19 and then throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s “government spending rose much faster than national wealth.”
The think tank says the average amount of paid tax per head of the population has jumped 5.5 per cent in the past year from $13,792 to $14,551.
While tax this year is taking slightly less of the nation’s wealth, Professor Saunders says it’s not because governments have been tightening their belts but because “the economy has been expanding even faster than our politicians’ appetites.”
“At a time when people are getting richer, the demands on government spending should be falling, yet taxes are still galloping ahead of inflation,” he says.
“It is not unreasonable to expect our state pr federal politicians to control their spending better than they have been doing.”
Tax Freedom Day is also calculated in other parts of the world including the US and the UK.

Thanks to the Courier Mail.

TO RENT TO BUY TO SELL
Peter Campbell - 0418 774 663