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Fairness of tax system

29 Aug 2017

Q. Now thinking about taxes – overall, how fair do you think our present Federal tax system is?

  Total   Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Vote other   Income less than $600 pw Income $600 – $1,000 pw Income $1,000 – $1,600 pw Income $1,600- $2,000 pw Income $2,000+ pw   Dec 2015 Apr 2016
Total fair 40%   36% 57% 26% 28%   43% 38% 40% 41% 43%   40% 36%
Total not fair 51%   58% 36% 67% 67%   46% 49% 53% 54% 51%   52% 55%
Very fair 4% 4% 6% 3% 7% 4% 2% 2% 5% 4% 3%
Moderately fair 36% 32% 51% 26% 25% 36% 34% 38% 39% 38% 36% 33%
Not too fair 27% 27% 23% 39% 30% 24% 23% 28% 28% 30% 30% 30%
Not fair at all 24% 31% 13% 28% 37% 22% 26% 25% 26% 21% 22% 25%
Don’t know 10% 7% 65 6% 5% 115 13% 7% 5% 6% 8% 10%

 

40% think the Federal tax system is very or moderately fair and 51% think it is not too fair or not fair at all. This represents a small shift toward thinking the tax system is fair since this question was asked in April last year.

Those most likely to think it not fair were Greens voters (67%) and other voters (67%).

Those most likely to think it is fair were Liberal/National voters (57%) and university educated (49%).

There was little difference across income groups.

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