 should be considered to ease the tax burden on workers. The Productivity Commission, which Ms Wood will head from November, is a prominent body that advises the government on economic, social and environmental issues. In her speech, Ms Wood said the federal government needed to 'seriously grapple' with the possibility of taxing large inheritances, although she admitted it would be 'political dynamite'. She did not state what the rate of tax should be on these estates if the death duty was brought back 40 years after it was scrapped. Given the median house price in Australia's largest cities, Melbourne and Sydney, is above $1m AUD, this would drag many families into the death duty net. It would also likely impact British expats, who make up the largest expat group in the country. Ms Wood told a local news outlet on Monday: 'We know that there is a growing pot of wealth, sitting in the hands of older Australians that will be passed on in coming decades. 'You would set some kind of threshold for the size of inheritances and only tax above that amount. It's not [the] super rich, but you don't want to be doing this by capturing the smaller inheritances of $50,000 AUD. 'And, you know, a world in which we are relying so much on taxes on people working … I think it makes sense to look at other ways to supplement that tax base.' Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser abolished federal estate taxes in 1979. By 1982, every state had scrapped the death duties. Although it changed every few decades, when it was abolished the average ra){kind=link}
Calls for the return of death duties come more than 40 years after they were scrapped
Australians should be forced to pay inheritance tax for the first time in 40 years, the incoming adviser to the Canberra government has suggested.
In a speech to the Economic Society of Australia earlier this month, respected economist at think tank the Grattan Institute and incoming head of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, said an inheritance tax on estates between one to two million Australian dollars (around £500,000 to £1m) should be considered to ease the tax burden on workers.
The Productivity Commission, which Ms Wood will head from November, is a prominent body that advises the government on economic, social and environmental issues.
In her speech, Ms Wood said the federal government needed to “seriously grapple” with the possibility of taxing large inheritances, although she admitted it would be “political dynamite”.