Aust, high in corporate tax

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 24

Aust, high in corporate tax

NZPA-AAP Canberra Australia has a higher rate of corporate taxation than all but two of its 15 major trading partners, a new industry survey has found.

According’ to the Business Council of Australia (BCA) survey, Australia, with a corporate tax rate of 49 per cent, ranks behind only Canada (51.5 per cent) and South Africa (50 per cent) in its level of corporate taxation.

A number of Australia’s major trading partners, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and France, had significantly reduced their corporate taxation Yates in the past four years, the BCA survey found. Hong Kong had the lowest corporate tax of the countries surveyed, at 18

per cent, however this had increased from 16.5 per cent in 1984.

The BCA released the survey in Canberra on Sunday, saying it indicated Australia must significantly reduce its taxes on business if it was to have a corporate tax rate competitive with the rates of its major trading partners.

The BCA said it also found Australia did not offer any comparatively special rates on depreciation as a means of compensating for its higher corporate taxation rate.

But it did rank well in the provision of taxation incentives for research and development, being one of only three countries (including Malaysia and Singapore) where such expenditure was more than 100 per cent tax deductible.