Tax proposals - Equity must be objective

THE Commission on Taxation was given its remit in those heady days when increasing tax revenues was not a requirement. Government coffers overflowed with the bounty from a property-driven, credit-fuelled bonanza.

How things change. The objective was reform rather than generating increased revenue. A carbon tax, at the insistence of the Greens, was anticipated.

The leaked report examines current taxes, charges and benefits but suggests how increases in one area might be balanced by decreases in another. In this context it is difficult to see where the staggering discrepancy between spending and revenues can be resolved.

Already this week we have heard of how tax incentives for investors reduced the tax bill of the very wealthy to below the rates paid by ordinary workers.

Whatever the response to the report may be it must put an end to this kind of inequity.