Understanding Labor’s dividend imputation reforms

A conversation with Budget Policy and Institutional Reform Program Director, Danielle Wood and Australian Perspectives Fellow, Brendan Coates. The announcement of Labor’s plan to abolish refunds of unused imputation credits for retirees in late March sparked significant confusion in the media, and in turn many Australians, about the economic effects and who would actually pay. Danielle and Brendan cut through this debate and shed some light on exactly what this policy will mean and who it will impact. Links to research discussed in this podcast: Brendan Coates and Danielle Wood, The real story of Labor’s dividend imputation reforms, published by Inside Story, March 2018 https://grattan.edu.au/news/the-real-story-of-labors-dividend-imputation-reforms/ Daley, J., Coates, B., Young, W., and Parsonage, H., Age of entitlement: age-based tax breaks, 2016, Grattan Institute https://grattan.edu.au/report/age-of-entitlement/ Daley, J., Coates, B., Wood, D., and Parsonage, H., 2015, Super tax targeting, Grattan Institute https://grattan.edu.au/report/super-tax-targeting/