The Australian Taxpayers' Alliance, the nation's largest grassroots advocacy group representing taxpayers, came out in support of a standard tax deduction as outlined in the Blueprint Institute's report released today. The report proposes a $3,000 standard deduction which would save many Australians the effort of itemising all of their work expenses.
"Taxes are costly. We spend not only our hard-earned money to pay them, but also hours of our time. This is as unnecessary as it is wasteful."
"Once taxpayers have successfully paid and filed their tax returns (no easy feat) the ATO spends $2.8 billion of our money enforcing this convoluted tax system. Australians cannot afford this kind of inefficiency."
"Taxpayers should not have to waste their time saving every crumpled receipt, and taxes should not be so complicated that we have to hire someone to figure out how to pay them," said ATA Policy Director, Emilie Dye. "Making the tax system simpler would save Australians billions."
"A standard deduction would stop the ATO from wasting so many resources determining whether our dry cleaning really was a work expense."
"Filing our taxes shouldn't be so hard. A standard deduction would give Australians back time and money, and it would stop the ATO from wasting so many resources."
