Policy Online carries a link (3.5.16) to an Australia Institute research paper about the federal government’s pre-election budget. The paper looks at ‘five reasons why people should be deeply suspicious of claims that income tax cuts will increase economic growth’.
‘The Federal Treasurer, Scott Morrison, is a strong advocate of both cutting income taxes and reducing the budget deficit. These two goals appear contradictory, since reducing government revenue would lead to a larger budget deficit. The Treasurer gets around this by making exaggerated claims about the economic benefits of income tax cuts. While there may be large political benefits to cutting income tax, the economic case for lower income taxes is very weak. It is made even weaker when we look closely at the types of income tax cuts that the Treasurer is considering.’
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