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Tax Policy Statements

26 Feb 2019

Q. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding tax policies?

  Strongly agree  + Somewhat agree Strongly disagree + Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree
The tax avoidance industry costs Australia $20B a year. Closing tax breaks and loopholes for corporations returns the money to the people through better funded public health and education and more infrastructure to cope with growth 59% 9% 30% 29% 18% 6% 3%
The Labor Party plans to close tax loopholes for the wealthy 53% 11% 23% 30% 18% 7% 4%
The Liberal Party’s tax policies favour wealthier Australians 51% 15% 30% 21% 19% 10% 5%
Labor’s policy is not to increase taxes but to stop tax concessions for the wealthy 46% 17% 21% 25% 18% 10% 7%
Taxes will always be higher under Labor 37% 23% 20% 17% 23% 14% 9%
The Labor Party plans to increase taxes 35% 22% 17% 18% 23% 14% 8%
I don’t really understand tax policy – I take my advice from my accountant 28% 33% 9% 19% 28% 19% 14%

The most widely agreed with statement addressed the tax avoidance industry and the benefits of curbing it (59% agree, while only 9% disagree). There was also majority support for the idea that the Labor Party plans to close tax loopholes for the wealthy (53% agree) and that the Liberal Party’s tax policies favour wealthier Australians (51% agree).

There is limited support for the idea that the Labor party is the higher taxing party  – 35% agree that the Labor party plans to increase taxes (while 22% disagree and 43% are either neutral or don’t know), while 37% agree that taxes will always be higher under Labor (while 23% disagree and 40% are either neutral or don’t know).

Just over a quarter of respondents believe that they don’t really understand tax policy (28% agree).

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