Sent to http://www.danielandrews.com.au/haveyoursay/
Dear Daniel,
I will keep in brief and summary form as an initial submission. Further elaboration will be provided as this project develops.
A critical objective for a jobs plan is to have a public finance system that encourages employment. There are some existing limitations in public finance that damage capital investment in productive activity.
* Payroll Tax should be abolished. It is a direct impost on employment. It served its purpose once (relative administrative ease) but those days are long gone and now it is a direct cause of unemployment.
* Stamp Duty. As a transaction cost, the tax is shared between consumers and sellers. An unreliable source of income, it reduces trades and therefore is damaging to productivity.
* Land tax. Successive state governments have sought to reduce the threshold and rate of land tax. However, as with other resource rents, land taxes actually encourage productivity and employment, make home ownership more affordable by removing the speculative impost, are reliable in their intake, and have very low administrative costs. Land taxes should be increased in percentage and scope, not reduced.
Yours most sincerely,
Lev Lafayette