Kevin Rudd today revealed a humiliating ignorance of tax policy.
Mr Rudd was unable to name a single tax rate or a single threshold for Australia’s income tax system:
JOURNALIST:… the Government’s tax plan, the tax policy in the Budget, can you name for me the rates and the thresholds which those rates kick in?
RUDD: Well if you look across the, you mean the ones when they…
JOURNALIST: Both of them, this year, July 1.
RUDD: Well as of July 1 if you went through the four thresholds, I think the high threshold kicks in I think at $175,000, then I think it cascades down the spectrum. When it comes to each individual tax rate and tax threshold for the future, what I have said when it comes to the future of the tax system is that our plan will be out there on the table for the Australian people to look at before the election.
For the record, here it is:
TAX SCALES FROM 1 July 2007 |
|
Taxable income ($) |
Tax rate (%) |
0 - 6,000 |
0 |
6,001 - 30,000 |
15 |
30,001 - 75,000 |
30 |
75,001 - 150,000 |
40 |
150,001 + |
45 |
It is extraordinary that a man who claims to have a policy on tax does not have the slightest idea of what the system is.
Mr Rudd doesn’t understand the tax system and he doesn’t understand the Australian economy. He should never be put in charge of people’s mortgages, their businesses or their jobs.