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Tom Elliott has some stern words for the ATO, says solution is ‘simple’

Jacqui Felgate
Article image for Tom Elliott has some stern words for the ATO, says solution is ‘simple’

Tom Elliott has fired back at the Australian Tax Office after it accused Australians of “underpaying” almost $9 billion in income tax.

He said it was largely their own fault for creating a “dog’s breakfast” of a tax system.

The 3AW Drive host opened his show on Thursday with some stern words.

“The ATO, like most politicians, labours under the misapprehension that tax money is their money – it is not,” Tom Elliott said.

“It is our money. We are the people who earn it.

“If you work for a salary or wage, or own a small business and hope to turn a profit each week, you are the people out there who make the money.

“The city of Canberra is not a place where anything is actually created, it’s simply a place that forces us to send them our cash and they go and spend it on things that don’t benefit us.

“The ATO needs to realise it doesn’t make anything.”

Tom is a qualified accountant, however, admits he no longer does his own tax return because the rules are “too complicated” to understand.

“The reasons Australians deduct so many different expenses from their tax is because our tax system is absurdly complicated and absurdly expensive,” he said.

“We have some of the highest rates of taxation of income in the western world.

“This idea that you’ve got to have progressive tax and the rich should pay more – tax hits middle Australia really, really hard compared tom most countries.”

Tom Elliott said the solution was “simple”.

He called for lower tax rates and scrapping the deduction system.

Click PLAY below to hear the full editorial

Jacqui Felgate
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