Let's not mince words, the "death tax" campaign begun by The Australian and the rest of News Corp stable is a pack of lies and manipulative misinformation. It is best met with facts and reassurance.

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There is no death tax in the budget. The changes to taxes on trusts only affect the very wealthiest of people. The changes to capital gains tax will not stymie innovation, send innovators offshore, or affect anyone unfairly.

The campaign is classic propaganda designed to scare and dupe people into voting against their own interests.

Indeed, there is a solid argument that if the changes to trust income went further it would benefit the great majority of Australia's 16 million taxpayers.

The good way to inform ordinary taxpayers who have been duped by News Corp and their hangers on in social media and the three conservative political parties is for them to ask themselves: "Do I have a trust or am I beneficiary of a trust? Do I understand what a trust is?" If the answer to any of those questions is no, then the budget changes will not affect you.

Indeed, they will indirectly improve your position as the government will get more revenue from the very wealthiest people to spend on things like health and education.

Let me explain why the measures do not go far enough and why there is no "death tax". Apologies for some of the math and the resort to legal concepts.

How do people use trusts to lower their tax liabilities?

Let's take an example. A wealthy man (and they are usually men) with a wife and three children could put, say, $10 million into a trust. That would pay about $570,000 in interest each year. Without the trust that $570,000 would attract an income tax of 47 per cent or $267,000.

With a trust, however, the trust would distribute the $570,000 three ways: $190,000 each to the wife and the two adult children who happen to be at university earning no other income. The........

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