Should we be worried about "Zero net taxpayers"?

Abstract

Following Duncan Storrar's appearance on ABC's Q&A on 9 May 2016, O.ne of the milder reactions to his questions about tax cuts was an article in The Australian - "ABC's "budget fairness' victim pays no net tax". The article pointed out that Mr Storrar was "sporadically working as a truck driver on $16 an hour and relying on a $520-a-fortnight Austudy allowance to survive". As a result he was labelled as a "zero net taxpayer", an expression used to describe people who either pay no tax or whose benefits received from government are greater than the taxes they pay. Show more