In the fourth in a series of short Policy Monographs which aims to consider various aspects of tax reform, Sinclair Davidson focuses on the treatment of higher rate income tax payers in Australia. He develops three basic arguments. The first is that the tax burden has shifted in recent years away from low- and middle-income earners onto high income earners. This will surprise many readers, for political activists and pundits commonly assert that higher income earners have done better than anybody else as a result of tax changes during the Howard years. But Davidson shows the public has been misled. In 1996/97, the top 25% of income earners paid 61% of total net tax; by 2000/01 they were paying 64% of it.
