Research Discussion Paper – RDP 05 Equations for Tax Payments in Australia

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to develop equations to explain quarterly tax payments in Australia. Tax payments are disaggregated into three broad categories: personal income taxes; company income taxes; and indirect taxes (payroll and sales taxes, customs and excise duties). Quarterly seasonally unadjusted data for the period 1958(3) to 1968(2) are used in the regressions.

The plan of the paper is as follows. The important distinction between liabilities and payments is drawn in section 2. The a priori framework for the equations is explained in section 3. The notation and sources of the data are given in section 4. Estimates of the equations appear in sections 5 to 7. The results of the study are summarised in section 8.