Category: Volume 20 Issue 1

Race and Tax Policy: The Case of the Chinese Poll Tax

Abstract
The Chinese poll tax was introduced in English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, during the nineteenth century. Though this tax was justified on social and economic grounds, it is largely a race-based tax as it was targeted at Chinese immigrants. This article provides a historical analysis of the New Zealand and Californian (American) poll tax. It also evaluates the relationship between the poll tax and immigration. Given the widespread Chinese poll tax in these countries, this evaluation has international significance, and demonstrates the central role of taxes in the formation and maintenance of civic identity. It also has contemporary implications given the extensive number of racially diverse immigrants, including the Chinese, who have migrated and are migrating to Western developed nations.
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VACANT PROPERTY TAXES AND THE HUMAN RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING

Abstract
As parties to fundamental human rights instruments, Australia and New Zealand have undertaken to provide their citizens with adequate housing, that is, somewhere to live in security, peace and dignity. Nevertheless, homelessness, which is the starkest manifestation of inadequate housing, is a significant social problem in both countries. Homelessness is one feature of an inequitable and inefficient distribution of scarce housing resources; residential properties left vacant is another. Vacant property taxes (‘VPTs’), which are gaining popularity around the world, are an obvious response to this mismatch between lack and surplus. In this article, I consider what homelessness means in Australia and New Zealand, and discuss whether VPTs respond proportionately to the lack of adequate housing.

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A Dual Income Tax System for Australian Small Business: Achieving Greater Tax Neutrality?

Abstract
This article explores the notion of tax neutrality and its relationship to the taxation of business structures, especially for Australian small businesses. In particular, it analyses whether the introduction of a dual income tax (DIT) system, as advocated by Pitcher Partners could achieve this. It will be argued that a DIT does have the potential to improve tax neutrality and may remove business structural biases that exist in Australia. Furthermore, it will be argued that steps towards tax neutrality would be likely to be achieved through greater alignment of the individual marginal tax rates and that with businesses.

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