Spleanicus Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 It came up on my Facebook feed from one my left wing (Australian) pro-Labor Party aquaintences that the Carbon Tax Repeal has been rejected. While I'm not surprised by that (given that income tax was supposed to be a temporary measure), it made me think "Has there ever been a tax repeal in any western nation in the past 100 years or so?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-William Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Depends on what you mean by repeal. Certainly Kennedy Coolidge and Reagan lowered the income tax rate. But it is a fine question… For example there were a lot of tariffs imposed in the late 20s that contributed to the Great Depression, as far as I know those tariffs were never repealed they were just made irrelevant by various trade treaties. I suspect that you may be able to find one or two taxes here or there that have been repealed but nothing significant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ribuck Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 In Australia, the Whitlam government repealed the television tax ("licence fee") shortly after winning the 1972 election. It was one of their most prominent election promises, and in my opinion is what won the election for them (because just about everyone had been paying this tax). The New South Wales government repealed death duties. In the past, people used to go to Queensland to die so that their children could inherit their estate intact. Also in Australia, in the 1980s there used to be a Bank Account Debit tax ("BAD Tax" . And when I was a child in Sydney in the 1960s, a shopkeeper had to affix a tax stamp to make any financial document legal. I remember my mother asking for a receipt in the newsagent once, and the owner had to stick a penny tax stamp on it to make a receipt for two shillings legal. Luxury tax (a high-rate sales tax applied to items such as cosmetics) was repealed when GST was introduced to Australia. Individual taxes do get repealed, but the overall tax take always seems to increase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spleanicus Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 Cheers, ribuck :)I suspect that whenever one tax is repealled, another will pop up somewhere down the line. Probably bigger.When Howard lost, I, in my naivety, thought the GST was going with him (thinking that was what lost him votes). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirgall Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 It's true that it was never the intent to have both an Income Tax and a Business Tax at the same time in the USA... but that sure didn't work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spleanicus Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 Update: Looks like it has now been abolishedhttp://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2014/07/17/vote-to-repeal-carbon-tax-passes-senate.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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