Tom Elliott hits out at mooted ‘death tax’ in Australia

Tom Elliott has lashed out at suggestions for death duties to be reintroduced in Australia.

It’s been estimated about $5 billion a year could be raised by taxing the estates of Australia’s ‘super rich’ once they died.

But the 3AW Drive host said it was ‘immoral’ and the government should focus on spending cuts instead.

‘I am dead-set against this,’ Tom Elliott said on Thursday.

‘It’s nonsense.

‘If you’ve paid tax your working life, built up a business or successfully invested in property ? or maybe just bought a family home in a good area back when homes were cheap and watched it grow – you’ve still paid for all this out of your existing after-tax income.

‘It is immoral for the state to come along, once you’re dead, and have another grab at your assets.’

Click PLAY below to hear Tom Elliott’s opening editorial on 3AW Drive

And Tom Elliott wasn’t alone in his thinking.

3AW Drive listener Dorothy said she was 38 when her husband died in 1976, leaving behind her and their two children.

She broke down when recalling her feelings about the tax.

‘It’s the cruellest tax one has to pay,’ Dorothy said.

Click PLAY below to hear Dorothy’s emotional call to 3AW Drive

Tim Costello is chair of the Community Council for Australia and CEO of World Vision and is leading the charge for the tax to be reconsidered.

‘I’m not saying I’m right, but let’s just debate it,’ he told Tom Elliott.

Click PLAY below to hear more from Tim Costello