Policy Statement - Tax Reform

Last updated: July 2025

Tax Reform: Unlocking Australia’s productive potential

Australia’s productivity growth has been persistently weak since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), undermining economic progress and living standards. Tax reform must be central to any national strategy for lifting productivity and competitiveness.

Key Observations and Recommendations

CPA Australia recommends:

• Recalibrating the tax mix to reduce over-reliance on personal and corporate income taxes and to explore broader use of consumption taxes, including GST.
• Establishing an Independent Tax Reform body, based on the New Zealand model, to deliver bipartisan, long-term tax policy advice and ensure political continuity in reform agendas.
• Developing a national tax reform roadmap, with clear goals for 2030, 2040 and 2050, instead of reactive and fragmented changes.
• Simplifying the corporate tax system, especially overlapping integrity measures and international rules, to improve business certainty and reduce compliance friction.
• Providing targeted support for small businesses, including permanent investment incentives and startup support, in recognition of their role in employment and innovation.
• Modernising outdated residency and source rules, especially for mobile individuals and small globally connected businesses, by implementing Board of Taxation recommendations.
• Reducing compliance burdens through regulatory reform, such as creating a small business simplicity index and simplifying fringe benefits tax (FBT) and complex international tax rules.
• Leading national reform of state taxes, especially payroll tax, via the Council on Federal Financial Relations (CFFR), to reduce business friction and lift labour mobility.