Tas a special tax case: premier

Tasmania would expect special treatment under the federal government's proposed state-based income tax model, Premier Will Hodgman says.

With the nation's lowest average income and high dependence on welfare the island state appears an obvious loser under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's plan to reduce the federal government's income tax collection, allowing the states and territories to collect the remainder to fund services like hospitals and schools.

"Tasmania is clearly disadvantaged against larger states," Mr Hodgman told reporters on Wednesday.

"The prime minister himself has acknowledged there will be difficult and different circumstances for Tasmania and perhaps South Australia if such a model were to proceed.

"So clearly by the prime minister's own admission there are different circumstances in Tasmania than there are in the larger states."

The Liberal leader said he will reject any plan to increase taxes or which leaves Tasmanians worse off, but signalled a preparedness to discuss the proposal, about which he spoke with Mr Turnbull on Monday.

"If it's an opportunity to access part of the income tax pool, and there's no disadvantage to Tasmania, we're prepared to look at health and education funding agreements but we're not going to do anything that will disadvantage Tasmania," the premier said.

Federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie slammed the proposal and called on Mr Hodgman to immediately reject the plan, warning that it could lead to Tassie having the nation's highest income tax rate.

"Anything that shifts our funding share from the commonwealth to our state will be harmful for us," Mr Wilkie said.

"We have less capacity than any other state to take on more of that funding burden."

In a federal budget worth some $400 billion, Mr Wilkie said there was more than enough money to fund essential services and that Canberra needs to reassess its priorities.

Launceston-based federal Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson also slammed the idea as a backwards move.

"Tasmanians will either need to pay a disproportionately high level of new income tax or will have to settle for substandard services, especially in health and education," he said.