As foreshadowed last week, the Business Council of Australia yesterday released yet another tax policy. And no prizes for guessing what it proposed: lower corporate taxes! That’s despite the benefits of lower company tax flowing almost entirely to foreign companies and shareholders (courtesy of our dividend imputation system) and the dearth of any sound evidence from anywhere in the world that lower tax rates result in higher investment or growth, unless you become a tax haven. But given the BCA has a strong representation of some of the world’s biggest multinationals, it’s hardly surprising its focus is on cutting the already minimal levels of tax paid by foreign companies. And if you’re thinking the BCA sounds like a broken record, you’re right — this is the ninth time since 2014 that the BCA has demanded a tax cut for its members. Presumably what is an increasingly discredited lobby group — slammed even by its own allies in the Liberal Party — thinks that the way to success is to endlessly repeat what has failed in the past. All power to them.
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