John Humphreys

Case for a classical liberal political party

_{Humphreys, J. (2007), “Taking Classical Liberalism to the People“, Policy, 23:1 (August 2007), Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney, pp40-43.}

Classical liberals have been disappointed by the performance of the Liberal Party, and are likely to remain disappointed my any major party. While a minor party may not win government, they have several benefits from having an explicitly classical liberal political party such as the Liberal Democrats:

Better advocacy and reaching more people
Changing the parameters of political debate
Being copied by the majors
Votes and preferences

Taxploitation chapter

_{Chapter in Saunders, P. (ed) (2006), Taxploitation: The Case for Income Tax Reform, CIS Readings 11, Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney.}

Australia’s increasingly irrational income tax system is riddled with distortions and disincentive effects. “There are so many special allowances, exemptions, credits, offsets and write-offs that tax law has become almost indecipherable, and gross amounts of money and time get spent trying to reduce liability to tax. Most really-high earners are paying a lower rate of tax than workers earning little more than average income. Retirement savings are viciously taxed, and because tax brackets are not indexed to inflation, the total tax-take increases year by year without anybody even realizing it,” says Peter Saunders.

Reform 30/30 Negative Income Tax

_{Humphreys, J. (2005), Reform 30/30: Rebuilding Australia’s Tax and Welfare Systems, CIS Policy Monograph 70, Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney.}

While the announcement of tax simplification by the Government is a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough. A new paper offers a blueprint for where tax and welfare reform should be heading. In this paper titled Reform30/30: Rebuilding Australia’s Tax and Welfare Systems, John Humphreys outlines a radical vision of how the tax and welfare systems could be refashioned to ensure that nobody loses more than 30 cents of any extra dollar they earn.

Humphreys proposes a single (flat) income tax rate of 30% (the Medicare levy would be scrapped). The tax free threshold (TFT) would be increased to $30,000 per person, so nobody would pay the 30% tax until they earned above this amount. Those earning below $30,000 would receive top-ups in the form of a Negative Income Tax (NIT), which would be paid at a rate of 30% (i.e. every dollar of income short of $30,000 would attract a top-up of 30 cents). The NIT would replace all existing welfare payments and tax expenditures.