13 May 2014

A tax receipt for individuals

The Abbott Government will improve transparency by introducing a receipt for taxpayers that tells them where and how their taxes were used.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO), from 1 July 2014, will issue receipts to about 10 million individual taxpayers. In most circumstances, it will accompany their notice of assessment.

This concise one-page personalised and itemised receipt will show, in dollar terms, how much of a person’s tax bill was spent on each budget area.

It will also show the level of gross government debt.

Labor left $123 billion in deficits and debt projected to reach $667 billion, which will be a personal bill of $25,000 for every Australian. That is dead money that the Government cannot use to help families, cut taxes and pay back debt.

The Coalition understands that every dollar the Government has, it holds on trust for the taxpayer. To make tax receipts an ongoing feature, the Abbott Government will soon introduce legislative amendments to the taxation law into Parliament. Costs for the issuance of the receipt will be met by the Australian Tax Office.

This Government initiative will help ensure that pressure is maintained on governments to spend taxation revenues wisely – part of an election commitment.