A fair, simple and sustainable tax system is necessary to provide the essential public services and infrastructure that enables us to live, learn, age and work safely. Taxes pay for hospitals, schools, roads and a range of vital community and business services that allow our country to prosper.
While tax revenue underpins the government’s ability to operate in all areas, it is especially important for vulnerable and disadvantaged people who rely on community services and support.
(SACOSS Advertisement, 2014)
The SACOSS campaign for a fair and and adequate tax system seeks to:
- Build community understanding of the basics of the debate, including the importance of an adequate tax base for funding vital services and where taxes should fairly lie;
- Argue for specific changes to South Australian taxes: and
- Input into and support our national peak body, ACOSS, in its advocacy on federal tax reform.
The tax system is crucial both to the ability of any government to provide vital services to the community, and to the capacity for governments to (re)distribute income through the tax-and-transfer system to ensure a fairer and more equal society.
Both state and federal governments (of all political persuasions) face long term problems in raising enough revenue to pay for vital services, while unfair taxes and tax concessions undermine the legitimacy of the tax system and make inequality worse.
For these reasons tax has become a key political issue.The South Australian Government launched a review of State Taxes in February 2015 and made some significant tax changes in the 2015-16 State Budget. However, to provide an adequate and sustainable revenue base for government, the reform process must continue.
SACOSS is doing research, advocacy and community sector engagement around taxation issues to ensure that the interests of vulnerable and disadvantaged people are heard in the public debate and in government decision-making processes.
Further information:
SACOSS Reports and Submissions
SACOSS, Losing the Jackpot: South Australia's Gambling Taxes, June 2016.
SACOSS, Submission to the SA State Taxation Review, April 2015.
Background Paper: Ian McAuley "Taxes are the Price We Pay for Civilisation", Information for the SACOSS AGM, November 2013.
SACOSS, Submission to the SA Parliament's Economic and Finance Committee Taxation Review, January 2013.