Budget reliance on tax paid by wealthy Australians

Australia’s budget is heavily reliant on the 1% of Australians who earn more than $350,000 per year. That is 82000 men with an average income of $760,853 and 28,000 women with an average income of $753,481. A combined total of $84 billion tax paid out of a total of $213 billion.

In other words, the richest 1% of Australians pay almost 40% of Australia’s income tax.

Furthermore, Australians in the top tax bracket, which starts at $180,000, paid almost $70 billion or a third of the nation’s income tax bill.

Whilst publishes such as The Guardian love to highlight Australian millionaires who pay no tax, ATO taxation statistics clearly show that wealthy Australians not only pay tax but are responsible for a large percentage of our budget.

Data doesn’t lie. And as The Guardian states themselves, albeit, with cleverly orchestrated subjective language, 99.5% of Australia’s millionaires pay an average of 44% income tax. Of course, The Guardian loves to spotlight the 0.5% that don’t in an attempt to reduce wealthy Australians to their lowest common denominator.

Without taking sides, objectively we can say that our nation is reliant on wealthy Australians who pay significant income tax.