The Top 10 highest taxing governments – Turnbull makes it

The Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook documents, released by Treasurer Scott Morrison in December, provided an interesting array of data on government finances. Here is the link https://budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/myefo/html/index.htm 

One particularly interesting issue in the MYEFO documents is the ratio of tax to GDP. As this ratio rises, the government makes a large footprint in the economy by taking money from the private sector, through taxes, as part of its budget management.

The following table presents the 10 highest taxing governments since 1970-71 and includes the outlook in the forward estimates to 2019-20. It is an interesting collection.