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Fair Taxation for all

January 26th, 2014 Leave a comment Go to comments




The Hon. Tony Abbott, MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House

26th Jan 2014

Dear Mr. Abbott.


On the news on ABC 24th Jan 2014 you were reported as under:

“My hope is to have a really frank leaders-only discussion in Brisbane about the biggest issues we face … because taxes need to be fair as well as low in order to preserve the legitimacy of free markets.”


Yet the Australian government practices great discrimination among its own citizens, as below:



This is how the retirees are treated in Australia.

Retiree: 1)
Worked for 45 years and paid taxes, but did not accumulate enough assets to be completely independent of the age-pension. For every dollar of extra income for him and his wife above $6,500, the couple loses $0.50 of age pension, and if their income exceeds $45,000 per annum, the couple will pay tax of $0.315 in the dollar including medicare levy, leaving them with an income of $0.185 from every dollar extra income. For the defined benefit income a 10% tax-offset applies if paid from an Australian super fund, but not if the income comes from an overseas fund.

Retiree 2)
Has accumulated assets of $1.5million,mostly with huge tax concessions, and the assets are in a so-called taxed Self Managed Super Fund. To be very conservative, the assets are in a term deposit earning 7.0% income of $122,500 per annum and even if the retiree is single, he/she will not pay a cent of tax.
Now if the assets are in fully franked shares, like banks, and return $100,000 worth of franked dividends, he/she will again pay no tax on the dividend, and the government will send him/her a cheque of $30,000 for the franking credits.

Should the assets of these retirees fall below a certain level, they will be entitled to the age pension as anyone else, therefore why does the government provides the rich retirees with such huge tax concessions, while punishing the retirees at the lower income scale with the punitive means-test of the age pension?

Retiree 3)
Is an ex-politician or highly paid public servant, in receipt of a defined benefit pension of $100,000, on which he/she will have to pay tax, but he/she gets a 10% tax offset, which equals $10,000 after reaching retirement age, but before retiring, the public servant can establish a SMSF and contribute into it extra with tax concessions if the $25,000 total for under fifty and $50,000, if over fifty is not exceeded and in addition he/she can contribute $150,000 from after tax income, and the earnings from the SMSF will only attract 15% tax, and when the person reaches the age of 60 even the income will be completely tax-free for the SMSF.

Retiree’s 2) are well represented by the media and the super industry, as well as the Unions, and retiree’s 3) are represented by the government, and ironically by the leadership of various retiree Associations, like ACPSRO and its affiliated Associations, but who represents retiree’s 1) the part- pensioners who are being robbed of a decent standard of living in retirement by the means-test of the age pension.


What is the fairest solution; scrap the mean test of the age pension and scrap all tax concessions for super.


I worked as a fifteen year old under third-world condition in my country of origin and paid into compulsory super, from which I now receive a small pension, but for every dollar of that pension, the Australian government takes away $0.50 of Centrelink pension and $0.31 tax and medicare levy, which amounts to a virtual 81.5% tax rate, when a self-funded retiree pays no tax at all.

 Now how can any government consider that fair.

Enclosed is an excerpt from a book “Debt man walking” by Bruce Brammall.

The Hon. Tony Abbott, MP, leads an accountable and open government that welcomes your views and feedback. You can ask the Prime Minister a question, give advice and pass on well-wishes here.


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