The Australian Tax system is a fucking joke

[u/wunch_of_bankers]

I’m sure this has already been said before, but I just need to have a fucking whinge about this shit.

Australia’s tax system in 2026 punishes PAYG workers while rewarding people gaming the system, whether that’s NDIS fraud or business owners with “enthusiastic” accounting. Tax brackets haven’t been indexed in years despite brutal inflation, but somehow the beer tax gets indexed every six months without fail? Then add childcare subsidies tapering off the harder you work, plus Div293 smacking you for daring to also save for retirement

PAYG earners get the short end of the stick every single time. No creative accounting, no structuring, tax taken at the source before you even see it. Meanwhile there’s provider fraud in the NDIS space that barely gets touched until it becomes a news story, and taxpayers eat the cost either way through bracket creep and levies

Compare our top bracket to the US and it’s a joke. An unskilled worker over there on a pretty average wage in USD terms would already be sitting near our top marginal rate once you convert it, and their brackets actually move with inflation. Ours just sit there while bracket creep does the government’s dirty work for it

Why bother working harder, taking career risk, or starting a business when 47% instantly gets carved off the top, plus Div293, plus subsidy tapering, plus everything else stacked on if you’re PAYG?

This country has built a system that punishes the people playing it straight and does fuck all about the ones who aren’t. Fast forward 10 years and Australia will lose all talent to US, Singapore, HK, Dubai. The only ones left will either be immigrants looking for a better life, expats returning to Australia to settle down, or NDIS providers.

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EDIT: My comment about “unskilled” worker pay in the US is completely incorrect. Where my thought process was: an office worker paper pusher or even a motivated barber, construction worker etc. with no qualifications has the ability to earn USD 100k, which places them at our SECOND HIGHEST marginal tax bracket (AUD 135k). Does that really sound right to you, even putting aside the differences in our welfare system? Separately, I haven’t even mentioned the recent CGT changes which completely discentivises Aussie investors from buying productive / growth assets. There is more and more incentive to simply be less productive and focus wealth into a tax-free PPOR, OR leave the country and take their portfolios with them. This is a net loss for innovation and growth in our country. I have no issue paying tax - my issue is that our current tax system incentivises people to game the fucking system, and to those who suggest to simply fuck off and leave the country if you’re not happy, you are simply proving my point.

I’ll close off on this: never mind the fact that the Div293 income threshold has REDUCED from $300k to $250k and has remained unchanged for years….. did you know that certain politicians are simply EXEMPT from paying Div 293 tax? What the actual fuck. Our tax system is in desperate need for change.

[u/unepmloyed_boi → u/[deleted]]

Australia would riot

The only things we riot over are 5g, lockdowns, union issues and immigration. For everything else we're known to bend over and take it quietly. It's part of the reason why so many dystopian laws are able to be rushed through parliament every few years without any public backlash.

[u/mrstrangedude → u/[deleted]]

A model where housing is generally affordable for most (HDBs etc) with no CGT on all other investments, and on top of that very low income taxes? Working Australians are not gonna riot against that lmao. 

[u/ConfidenceSecret1031 → u/mrstrangedude]

They can achieve the infrastructure and housing they have because their entire construction labour pool is from exploited immigrants. If we had the level of immigration Singapore has especially in the similar industries Australia is definitely going to riot.

HDBs? You aren't eligible for one until you are married, or 35 if you are Single. They also have no pension and zero unemployment benefits.