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The Commonwealth legislated that their income tax take priority over any State income tax and that any State retiring from income tax collection be paid a grant in compensation for lost revenue. The States rejected this tax takeover but the High Court ruled that the Commonwealth income tax legislation was valid, essentially giving the Commonwealth…

The federal government introduced payroll tax in 1941 at 2.5% of wages to finance a national scheme for child endowment. In 1971, the federal government handed over payroll taxes to the states and they promptly increased the rate to 5%.  Tax competition between states and lobbying by individual employers and employer groups for exemptions has…

A federal government income tax was introduced in 1915, in addition to existing state income taxes, to finance involvement in the First World War. The tax was designed by the Australian statistician, Sir George Knibbs, and was levied on individual taxpayers at progressive rates. Although rates of tax imposed ranged from 3% – 25% the…

  Tasmania was the first state to introduce an income tax in 1880 to raise revenue due to a fiscal crisis. The tax took the form of a withholding tax on distributed income of companies. In 1884, a general tax on income was introduced in South Australia, and in 1895 income tax was introduced in…

The first direct taxes took the form of taxing the estates of deceased persons which at the outset applied only to personal estates and not real estate. The first death duty was applied in 1851 in NSW, 1865 in Tasmania, and eventually all the other states by 1901. The rates were progressive and based on…

The English navigator James Cook became the first European to map the east coast of Australia in 1770 and a First Fleet of British convicts followed to establish a penal colony at Sydney in 1788. When the first Governor, Governor Phillip, arrived with the First Fleet he had a Royal Instruction that gave him power…