Everyone loves the idea of an NDIS (national disability insurance scheme) but few people will like the idea of paying a $300 levy for it. As the federal election approaches I'm sure once again I'll be hearing people compain that "we pay too much tax". Whether it's income tax, carbon tax, business tax or a new NDIS levy / tax, the underlying assumption is that we pay too much tax. The reality is that we don't.
In fact, there are loads of countries who pay more tax (as a ratio of GDP) than Australia does. They are... Ireland, Guyana, Seychelles, Canada, Estonia, Turkey, Barbados, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Serbia, Brazil, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Botswana, Malta, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Israel, Russia, Portugal, Argentina, Spain, United Kingdom, Hungary, Cyprus, Slovenia, Netherlands, Swaziland, Iceland, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Lesotho, Austria, Finland, Norway, France, Cuba, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Zimbabwe, Kiribati and Timor-Leste.
Out of the 35 OECD countries only eight pay less tax than us. They are Japan, Switzerland, Slovakia, Mexico, Greece, Japan, US, South Korea and Chile. Many of those are either in big debt (because the government has spent like they were earning way more) or they have no where need the services (particularly health) that we do. Now, this isn't to say that tax revenue is never wasted or to say that the tax system is neccesarily fair. So sure, go ahead and argue about which sector of the community should be paying more tax, which should be paying a less tax and how it should be spent. But please no more complaining that "we pay too much tax". We don't and we need to pay a bit more.
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