Why we should probably pay more tax as we get older

February 27, 2026 — 4:00am

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To pay now, or pay later? Given the choice, many of us would choose the latter.

It’s easy to forget that all of us – if we’re lucky enough to live a long life – go through the same life stages.

We’re all former children, we were (and some younger readers might currently be) anxious about landing first jobs, we work our way up the career ladder and might raise families, and most of us end up retired at some point.

When we talk about intergenerational fairness, it’s common to pit one generation against another and focus on our immediate personal needs, wants and experiences. If we’re early in our careers and yet to get a foot into the housing market, we might be especially interested in policies that reduce income tax for lower-to-middle income earners and which bring house prices within reach. By contrast, many (often older) homeowners might believe they’ve worked hard to get to where they are and shouldn’t be “punished” for doing well with what they were given.

But what if we thought about tax across our own lifetimes? Would you prefer to pay more tax when you’re younger and trying to set yourself up? Or would you rather begin paying more once you’ve put in the hard yards and are relatively well set up?

Most people would agree that they’d prefer to be taxed more when they’re more comfortable financially. For most of us, that’s when we’re older.

Teal MP for Wentworth Allegra Spender points out that right now, a young worker earning $100,000 a year, all through wages, tends to pay far more tax compared to someone who earns the same amount of money........

© Brisbane Times