The Turnbull Governments motto must be when youre on a bad thing, stick to it as the Liberal Party trots out the old taxable income data that is completely wrong and misleading for a debate on Labors dividend imputation reforms.

Malcolm Turnbull needs to explain today why its accurate to use taxable income data when it excludes tax free income streams from retirement phase superannuation?

The fact is you can be considered to have a low taxable income but actually have a high disposable income or be relatively wealthy.

The Liberal Party trotted out the exact same data set to attack Labors negative gearing reforms and it is as wrong and misleading now as it was then.

Taxable income data excludes income from retirement phase 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.

Analysis of Labors reforms by former Treasury officials working at Industry Super Australia shows that 80 per cent of the savings from Labors reforms comes from the wealthiest 20 per cent of retirees.

Independent think tank the Grattan Institute and independent economist Saul Eslake have recently spoken out critiquing the Governments use of taxable income data.

Michael Croker from the Chartered Accountants A-NZ said last week in the Australian Financial Review:

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.

When Labor announced its reforms to negative gearing, the Liberal Party 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.

The Liberal Party needs to cease and desist with the lies on Labors dividend imputation reforms.