scholarly journals The Age Pension Means Tests: Contorting Australian Retirement

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Asher ◽  
John De Ravin
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Discussion Paper ◽  
Future Earnings ◽  
Means Testing ◽  
Base Level ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates

Most Australian retirees are likely to be subject to the Age Pension assets or income test at some point. Evidence is that many retirees adapt their consumption to increase Age Pension entitlements, but long-term implications are difficult to determine—even if the current rules were to remain in place. This chapter evaluates the current approach to means testing against the principles set out in a Department of Social Services discussion paper on this topic. We evaluate the implied “effective marginal tax rates” (EMTRs) on the assets of part pensioners who are subject to the assets test. We find that depending on a variety of parameters such as assumed future earnings rates, demographic status, drawdown strategy and the base level of assets held, the EMTRs are high enough to explain material distortions to savings decisions of those still in employment, and the spending and investment decisions of retirees. Optimal decisions in this context require contorted retirement strategies that do not appear to be in anyone’s interest. Some possible remedies are suggested, which should include incorporating the value of the principal residence within the assets test. The chapter therefore illustrates the application of principled analysis to policy issues of this sort.

Removing Poverty Traps: Taxation and Welfare Reform in Australia

1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-114
Author(s):  
M. Cashel ◽  
P. A. McGavin
Keyword(s):  
Income Taxation ◽  
Poverty Traps ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Transfer Payments ◽  
Base Level ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
State Welfare ◽  
Tax Exempt ◽  
Welfare Changes

This article uses data on the interactions of income taxation and state welfare transfers on effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) in Australia to argue policy reforms for removing poverty traps created by high EMTRs. This highlights the need for state welfare and income taxation reforms to target those elements of income taxation and social welfare interaction that are most significant for high EMTRs and for high EMTRs extending across wide incomes ranges. Proposed welfare changes involve simultaneous reductions in base-level state welfare transfer payments, along with eligibility for supplementary transfer payments for able persons that are proportional to market labour activity. Proposed taxation changes include removal of distinctions between taxable and tax-exempt state welfare transfers and a gradually-progressive revised taxation scale.

Tax Clienteles and Debt Maturity

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Harwood ◽  
Gil B. Manzon
Keyword(s):  
Capital Structure ◽  
Debt Maturity ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Maturity Structure ◽  
Tax Shields ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
Outstanding Debt ◽  
Larger Sample

We examine the proposition that the expected value of future interest tax shields affects firms' preferences for long-term vs. short-term debt. We extend prior work that has focused on incremental debt issuances (Newberry and Novack 1999; Guedes and Opler 1996) by examining the maturity structure reflected in the portfolio of firms' outstanding debt at year-end. Thus, our study tests a wider range of capital structure activities and includes a much larger sample of firms than examined in prior studies. Our results indicate that firms with high marginal tax rates use more long-term debt than do firms with low marginal tax rates. These findings are consistent with the existence of tax clienteles for financing with debt of different maturities.

Historical and medical aspects of the organization of medical and social services for the elderly and senile people in Russia in the late XX — early XXI centuries

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-57
Author(s):  
Lyudmila Kaspruk
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
Geriatric Service ◽  
Delivery Of Medical Care ◽  
Older Citizens

When analyzing the historical and medical aspects of the organization of medical and social services for the elderly and senile people in Russia in the late XX — early XXI centuries not only obvious achievements in this sphere, but also a number of problems requiring solution were identified. The primary role in the delivery of medical care to geriatric patients is assigned to the primary health care sector. However the work of the geriatric service in the format of a single system for the provision of long-term medical and social care based on the continuity of patient management between differ- ent levels of the health care system and between the health and social protection services is not well organized. There is no clear coordination and interaction between health care and social protection institutions, functions of which include providing care to older citizens, and it significantly reduces the effectiveness of the provision of both medical and social services.

Predictors of Mortality in Board and Care Homes

1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas G. Castle
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Home ◽  
Nursing Homes ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Board And Care

Long-term care institutions have emerged as dominant sites of death for the elderly. However, studies of this trend have primarily examined nursing homes. The purpose of this research is to determine demographic, functional, disease, and facility predictors and/or correlates of death for the elderly residing in board and care facilities. Twelve factors are found to be significant: proportion of residents older than sixty-five years of age, proportion of residents who are chair- or bed-fast, proportion of residents with HIV, bed size, ownership, chain membership, affiliation with a nursing home, number of health services provided other than by the facility, the number of social services provided other than by the facility, the number of social services provided by the facility, and visits by Ombudsmen. These are discussed and comparisons with similar studies in nursing homes are made.

Estimates of Effective Marginal Tax Rates on Factor Incomes

1981 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas H. Joines
Keyword(s):  
Tax Rates ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates

Child Money and Food Stamps: A comparative analysis of Mongolian welfare programmes in the Ger Districts of Ulaanbaatar

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-524
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fox
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Food Stamps ◽  
Means Testing ◽  
Economic Cycles ◽  
Funding Sources ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Welfare Model ◽  
Level Analysis

Abstract Until recently, the Mongolian welfare system was entirely category based. However, a new food stamps programme funded by loans from the Asian Development Bank, which targets aid according to proxy means testing, has been introduced as part of the bank’s aim to push Mongolia towards a fiscally sustainable welfare model. The food stamps programme is presented as efficient and responsible in contrast to Mongolia’s universal child money programme. Based on long-term participant observation research in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar, areas inhabited by many rural-urban migrants living in poverty, this paper compares the two programmes, interweaving street-level accounts of the experiences of residents and bureaucrats alike with the respective histories and funding sources of the two programmes. Doing so provides a multi-level analysis of the emergent welfare state in Mongolia, unpicking the ‘system’ that ger district residents encounter, linking the relative influence of international financial institutions to democratic and economic cycles, and offering a critique of the supposed efficiency of targeted welfare programmes.

EFFECTIVE MARGINAL TAX RATES UNDER THE FEDERAL INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX: DEATH BY ONE THOUSAND PIN PRICKS?

1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-564
Author(s):  
THOMAS A. BARTHOLD ◽  
THOMAS KOERNER ◽  
JOHN F. NAVRATIL
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Individual Income ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
Individual Income Tax
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