Abolish the Cashing out of Franking Credits
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Abolish the cashing out of franking credits: INQUIRY INTO THE IMPLICATIONS OF REMOVING REFUNDABLE FRANKING CREDITS Submission David Richardson November 2018 ABOUT THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE The Australia Institute is an independent public policy think tank based in Canberra. It is funded by donations from philanthropic trusts and individuals and commissioned research. We barrack for ideas, not political parties or candidates. Since its launch in 1994, the Institute has carried out highly influential research on a broad range of economic, social and environmental issues. OUR PHILOSOPHY As we begin the 21st century, new dilemmas confront our society and our planet. Unprecedented levels of consumption co-exist with extreme poverty. Through new technology we are more connected than we have ever been, yet civic engagement is declining. Environmental neglect continues despite heightened ecological awareness. A better balance is urgently needed. 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Level 1, Endeavour House, 1 Franklin St Canberra, ACT 2601 Tel: (02) 61300530 Email: [email protected] Website: www.tai.org.au ISSN: 1836-9014 Contents Inquiry into the implications of removing refundable franking credits ....................... 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 2 Double taxation of dividends ....................................................................................... 2 The distribution of franking credits is extremely skewed ............................................ 3 How much is involved? ..................................................................................................... 7 Abolition of refunds of franking credits ....................................................................... 8 Other OECD countries .................................................................................................. 9 Other arguments against dividend imputation .......................................................... 10 They go unused ........................................................................................................... 12 They nullify incentives through tax concessions ........................................................ 12 Bias .............................................................................................................................. 12 Options for cutting or reducing dividend imputation .................................................... 13 Labor’s plan ............................................................................................................ 13 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 15 Abolish the cashing out franking credits 1 Introduction The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to respond to the House of Representatives Economics Committee’s invitation to make a submission to the inquiry into the implications of removing refundable franking credits. Dividend imputation was introduced by the then Treasurer Paul Keating in 1987 with the aim of eliminating the so-called double taxation of company income. Under dividend imputation the individual who receives dividend income is taxed but receives credit for company tax paid by the company. Company tax paid by the company is imputed to the shareholder and the shareholder is taxed at the appropriate tax rate. Credit is given to the taxpayer for company tax deemed to have been paid on behalf of the taxpayer. This is said to eliminate the double taxation of investment income. It is based on the view that the company is just a community of shareholders and that investing as a shareholder should be treated equivalently to running a business as an individual. The view that the company is an extension of the individual shareholder is somewhat quaint in a world in which even very rich individuals rarely have a significant share of the larger companies in which they invest. By the same token the modern corporation has outgrown its ultimate owners. Natural persons own less than 10 per cent of Australia’s listed shares for example.1 In 2014 the Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into the extent of income inequality asked the Australia Institute for supplementary information on dividend imputation. Much of the background detailed in the present submission is based on that publication.2 Some of the data below may be dated but the orders of magnitude should be similar. If the Committee wishes we could update any data that is of particular interest. DOUBLE TAXATION OF DIVIDENDS The aim of dividend imputation was to remove the double taxation of company income – not to eliminate the tax altogether which is what cash refunds do in effect. The proposal to refund excess imputation credits was raised by the Howard Government as part of A New Tax System, the set of measures that included the introduction of the GST. This sought to give a cash refund for excess imputation credits for: 1 TAI calculations based on ABS (2018) Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth, Jun 2018, Cat no 5232.0, 27 September. 2 See Richardson D (2014) Submission: How the government loses 48 per cent of company tax: Dividend imputation and franking credits. Supplementary information on dividend imputation, 17 October. Abolish the cashing out franking credits 2 individuals, trustees assessed for a resident beneficiaries share of a trust, superannuation funds, approved deposit funds and pooled superannuation funds, life assurance companies, and some other registered organisations. These were to apply to dividends paid on or after 1 July 2000. Given the circumstances the GST received most of the attention at the time and there was little discussion of the impact of cashing out unused franking credits. As it now applies: If your total tax offsets exceed your basic income tax liability, and some of those offsets are subject to the refundable tax offset rules, you may get a refund instead of paying income tax. Excess franking credits are now eligible for refunds. All of this is outlined mainly in sections 63 and 67 of the Income Tax Assessment Act and related provisions. THE DISTRIBUTION OF FRANKING CREDITS IS EXTREMELY SKEWED We found that of those people who lodged a tax return the top 1.4 per cent who earned $250,000 or more received 37.1 per cent of all the franking credits. The average value of franking credits rises rapidly as we examine higher and higher income earners. Our analysis confirmed that the richest households had disproportionally more wealth in shares than all other households. Shareholdings of the top 20 per cent were $638 billion or 84 per cent of the total ($758 billion) and the top 20 had 106 times the value of the bottom 20 per cent ($6 billion). Super funds and trusts also received franking credits. We cannot allocate those directly to individuals or households but we showed that the holdings of trusts and super are also very skewed towards the rich. In the discussion below we consider the value of the imputation system in Australia. However, it is important we understand who receives franking credits. That allows us to consider who would win or lose if there were to be any changes to the present imputation arrangements. The tax office figures related to 2014-15 and give total income as well as franking credits. Those figures are summarised in Table 1. Table 1: Taxpayers and franking credits (2014-15) Income Share of franking Share of taxpayers credits (%) (%) Non-taxable and below $10,000 2.2 10.31 $10,000 to 50,000 14.6 47.11 Abolish the cashing out franking credits 3 $50,000 to 100,000 17.4 30.3 $100,000 to 150,000 12.0 7.44 $150,000 to 250,000 16.6 3.53 $250,000 and above 37.1 1.35 Total 100.0 100.0 Memo item: Taxpayers $1m plus 15.0 0.08 Source: Australian taxation office (2014) Taxation statistics, 2014-15, at https://www.ato.gov.au/About- ATO/Research-and-statistics/In-detail/Taxation-statistics/Taxation-statistics-2014-15/?page=3#Statistics Table 1 provides some interesting data and our main interest here is the franking credits received by the highest income earners. Of those people who lodged a tax return there were 1.4 per cent who earned $250,000 or more but they received 37.1 per cent of all the franking credits. The next highest bracket, $150,000 to $250,000, accounted for 3.5 per cent of the taxpayer population and received almost 17 per cent of the franking credits. If we sum up all those with income over $100,000 we have 12.3