Why 'average Australians' does not mean 'most' |
So what is the middle income for Australians?
Each year, the ATO’s taxation statistics provide insight into this topic, and this year’s release is particularly pertinent because it covers the 2023-24 financial year – the same one in which the government made changes to the stage-three tax cuts.
Six years ago, then opposition leader Anthony Albanese suggested that he did not “regard someone who’s earning $200,000 a year as being from the top end of town”.
At the time, such a statement was pretty extraordinary from a Labor leader, given that in 2019-20, earnings of $200,000 would have put you in the top 4 per cent of income-earners in Australia.
But what about in the most recent figures? Is $200,000 still at the top end, or has it become common? After all, in January 2024, Albanese announced changes to the stage-three tax cuts that would increase the top tax threshold to $190,000 and lift the 30 per cent........