>From the Sunday Telegraph, at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/index.asp?URL=/finance/4165674.htm Super tax slated By KEITH GOSMAN 13dec98 THE Government's "disastrous" superannuation surcharge tax is costing almost half the money it raises, the Australian Taxpayers Association said. ATA national director Peter McDonald said the surcharge was estimated to raise $470 million this financial year. But Mr McDonald said the tax was costing more than $200 million to collect. In contrast, income tax cost less than 1 per cent to collect from the public. According to an Association of Superannuation Funds survey, the $200 million plus cost of administrating the surcharge is being paid by ordinary Australians. "Half of the funds surveyed indicated that the additional costs due to the surcharge had been distributed across all members," the ASFA said. The new tax was announced three years ago and has yet to be fully implemented, with the Australian Tax Office facing further processing delays. "The surcharge is a disaster," Mr McDonald said. "It is affecting all tax payers regardless of whether or not they are subject to the surcharge. The Government literally is killing the goose which lays the golden eggs." The surcharge was also costing 10 times more than total industry fraud costs over the past decade, he said. The surcharge was designed to slug about 355,000 high-fliers who earn more than $75,000 a year. But Mr McDonald said 8 million ordinary taxpayers were being hit by the cost of the tax � not just high-income earners. "It's a disastrous system (which) adversely affects all members of super funds because they are the ones who must bear the additional costs." He said the administration costs should diminish over time. But he warned there was no way of predicting by how much because of the problems dogging the surcharges implementation. "It will remain a highly inefficient system." The ATO has again been forced to delay its timetable for super funds reporting on the surcharge. The original reporting date for the surcharge was set at October 31, then moved to December 15. The new deadline is January 15 which means assessments will not be sent out until February. "The surcharge is a failure and should be scrapped," Mr McDonald said. "It was nothing more than an attempt to squeeze more revenue from super by targeting an easy political mark." ASFA chief executive officer Philippa Smith has described the surcharge as poorly designed, poorly executed, inefficient, inequitable and overly complex and uncertain. end ============== Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List As vilified, slandered and attacked by One Nation mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html
