By Andrew Mackinnon
Last updated: 9th September, 2023
The Goods & Services Tax (GST) in Australia constitutes double taxation of income on which income tax has already been paid. The Australian federal government wasn’t satisfied with the income tax that citizens paid on their earnings. It wanted more. So, on 1st July, 2000, it introduced the GST to tax the income that the citizenry have left after they’ve already paid income tax. This is an attack on the property rights of the citizenry over the income that they earn. The citizenry earn income and are obligated to pay income tax to the government to fund their common needs. One would hope that they have property rights over their remaining income, but no! The government wants more and the citizenry are on the hook for 1/11 in GST (i.e. 10/110) of all of the goods and services they purchase with their after-tax income.