SloMo has been caught out, again, pushing the same taxable income data he used when attacking Labors negative gearing policies, while also continuing the gross politicisation of Treasury.

Scott Morrison and his office continue to sell Treasury down the river by publicly arguing that Treasury analysis shows that 97 per cent of individuals who receive refunds of franking credits have taxable income below $87,000.

Mr Morrison knows full well the taxable income data excludes a whole range of income including that from superannuation. The fact is a lot of the income people receive in retirement is tax free because it comes out of retirement phase super funds.

Michael Croker from the Chartered Accountants A-NZ has today blown this out of the water:

Taxable income does not indicate a persons meansA person could be wealthy in terms of assets held... or be receiving income that is not assessable, such as a payout from a superannuation fund after age 60.

Michael Croker, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

BDO Australia Tax Partner Mark Molesworth made the same point:

It is very important when somebody says low-income earner they specify whether that is low taxable income or low overall income, including their superannuation stream.

You know Scott Morrison is lying when he reaches for the taxable income data this is not the first time hes tried this trick.

When Labor announced its reforms to negative gearing, Scott Morrison trotted out the same taxable income to much fanfare, in a vain attempt to argue a whole stack of Australian on taxable incomes of $0 were negative gearing multiple properties. The point here is what that the taxable income data was showing the impact on individual incomes of tax deductions like that on mortgage interest payments and negative gearing in driving down incomes.

The taxable income data is what you have left after wealthier Australians have made use of the tax system with deductions, etc, to drive down their assessable incomes, and it excludes other relevant income streams like that from retirement phase super accounts.