The Tax and Transfer Policy Institute is pleased to welcome you to our new blog, Austaxpolicy.

Tax and transfers are all over the news. And many questions are being discussed. The Austaxpolicy Blog aims to bring academic commentary, new research, book and article reviews and expert opinions to the wider policy and public debate on tax and transfers, in Australia, the region and globally.

Austaxpolicy features insight and analysis from experts of all disciplines working at the intersection of research and policy on tax and transfers. Along with regular contributions from staff at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, the blog publishes work from experts across a range of relevant disciplines and topics.

Do we have a revenue problem or a spending problem? How should we treat superannuation tax concessions and the age pension? What can (and should) we do about multinational tax minimisation? Is company tax too high? Are patent boxes the way forward or should we abolish company tax altogether? Do we need a bigger GST? What kind of resource taxation is the most efficient? Is the system too complex? Is bracket creep unfair? What is bracket creep? How should we tax resources? Should the federal system of allocating tax revenues be changed? What is horizontal fiscal equalisation anyway? These are just some of the issues Austaxpolicy contributors will address in coming months.

Featured on our blog launch are contributions by leading researchers and policy thinkers: Professor John Hewson, Chair of the TTPI, on the challenges of tax reform; Professor Peter Whiteford of the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy on the distributional effects of our overall tax and transfer system; and Professor John Freebairn of the University of Melbourne on the controversial question of whether royalties or resource rent taxes are more efficient. We have also included a Brief that explains many features of the Goods and Services Tax, which is the subject of debate among our State and federal governments this week. Look out for a number of new articles that will become available over the coming weeks.

The Tax and Transfer Policy Institute was established at the Crawford School of Public Policy of the Australian National University, with the mission to undertake independent research and evidence-based policy development in taxes and transfers for public benefit to achieve state and national goals in Australia and throughout the region. The Austaxpolicy Blog, like the TTPI, does not exist to offer a single perspective on tax and transfer policy. Rather, it aims to foster a richness and diversity in tax and transfer policy research in Australia and internationally for the short and long term, exploring issues and solutions to the critical tax and transfer policy challenges facing governments over the next few decades.

We welcome your comments and contributions and we look forward to having an inspiring debate with academics, policy-makers and the public on taxes and transfers.

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