Call for 'death tax' to help Australia raise $70 billion ahead of economic round table

As business, union, and community leaders gather in Canberra this week for the government's landmark economic roundtable, a call has come for Australia to impose an inheritance tax among other measures to raise $70 billion in tax revenue.

A report from the Australia Institute claims this can be done in ways that wouldn't hurt low- or middle-income Australians.

The report suggested a 2 per cent wealth tax on people with a worth of more than $5 million could alone raise $41 billion a year.

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It also found a reintroduced inheritance tax would raise $10 billion, as well as reducing "intergenerational inequality".

An inheritance tax - often dubbed a "death tax" by critics - is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property from a deceased person.

They do not exist in Australia, though they previously did in state and federal form in the 1960s and 1970s.

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The report's third major suggestion was scrapping the capital gains tax discount.

The researchers found this would raise an extra $19 billion a year and help make property prices more affordable for those struggling to crack the market.

"Australia is a low-tax country that does not do a good job of taxing wealth," Australia Institute senior economist Matt Grudnoff said.

"It is one of the few developed economies in the world which has neither a wealth tax nor an inheritance tax."

"Correcting this would raise huge amounts of extra revenue for essential services and ease growing inequality in Australia."

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He said the wealth tax would still raise $41 billion even if family homes and superannuation were exempted.

"If you limited it to just the 200 richest households in the country, it would still raise $12.5 billion per year," Grudnoff said.

He said many developed economies, including the US, UK, Japan, and most of Europe, had an inheritance tax or something that functioned as one.

"A couple of generations ago, Australia had probate and succession duties that raised 0.36 per cent of GDP, which, if reintroduced today, would deliver an extra $10 billion in revenue," he said.

"These are not radical ideas.

"If we want well-funded schools and hospitals; decent, affordable housing for all; a world-class NDIS; a fair welfare system; and dozens of other things which would improve the lives of millions of Australians, we can have them."

The economic round table this week will consider nearly 900 submissions from "experts, industry leaders and individuals and over 40 forums that Ministers have held right around the country", Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

"This process has brought forth a wide range of views on everything from deregulation to tax reform," he wrote in an opinion piece published online.

"This healthy public debate has also made it clear there is substantial common ground on many issues – and that is where the immediate opportunities lie."

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