Tax Expenditures Statement 1997-98

Publication

The Treasury today released the Tax Expenditures Statement 1997-98. The Statement provides details on the estimated budgetary cost of taxation concessions of various kinds. Tax exemptions, tax deductions, tax rebates or reduced tax rates usually deliver these concessions. They lower the tax burden by either reducing outlays or delaying the collection of taxation revenue. The main points to note from this year's Statement are:

The aggregate cost of tax expenditures for which estimates are available has risen from $19.3 billion in 1996-97 to $19.5 billion in 1997-98 and is projected to fall to $19.0 billion by 2001-02 (although the forward projections are subject to significant uncertainty). The largest single tax expenditure is related to the concessional treatment of superannuation contributions, fund income and benefits paid and other termination payments. It is estimated to cost $9.1 billion in 1997-98, a decline of around $50 million from the previous financial year. Revenue forgone through measured tax expenditures was around 14 per cent of the cost of total Commonwealth underlying outlays in 1997-98.

The Tax Expenditures Statement 1997-98 is available from Government Information Shops and through the Internet at http://www.treasury.gov.au.

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