If you divide the welfare spend in Australia by the population, it comes out at about $6000 for every man, woman and child. Since only about 45 per cent of the population pay income tax, it follows that, on average, taxpayers have to pay twice that amount in tax in order to fund welfare. That is, about $12,000 per taxpayer goes in welfare. More than a months work for many. This is a completely nonsense calculation and Vanstone is smart enough to know better. Firstly, government has heaps more revenue than personal income tax, so the welfare spend is only partly borne by individual taxpayers. Secondly, she implies that all taxpayers pay the same amount for welfare when In fact it would be proportionately according to amount of tax paid. Thirdly, about half the welfare spend goes on the age pension, much of which goes to quite wealthy people whove adjusted their finances in order to still get the pension. Fourthly, superannuation concessions and tax breaks for property investors put a similar cost to that of welfare on taxpayers, but the benefits flow to the wealthy.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 00:16:49 +0000
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