International Law

The 2008-09 Budget Papers will be available after 7:30 pm, Tuesday 13 May 2008 from www.budget.gov.au and from Department of Finance and Deregulation, Australian Taxation Office, australia.gov.au and Parliament of Australia.

Treasurer Wayne Swan's interview with Laurie Oakes yesterday foreshadowed the following announcements:

• the tax on luxury cars will increase from 25 per cent to 33 per cent;
• a comprehensive review of our tax system. "We'll look at personal taxation. We'll look at the transfer payment system. We'll look at how that affects individuals, how is affects families, how it affects retirees. We'll look at the company tax system, and we'll also look at all of the implications, say, of an emissions trading system for taxation as well...Federal, local government taxes and state government taxes ? a comprehensive review of  the relationship between all of those...we have ruled out any broadening of that base of the GST  or any increase in the GST rate...we've  ruled out any change to tax-free super "
• an increase in the threshold at which the Medicare levy commences.