Royal Commission on Taxation

Appointed by Letters Patent dated 10 September 1920 on the advice of the Hughes government, after the Treasurer, Sir Joseph Cook, announced on 3 September 1920 that a commission would examine the incidence of Commonwealth taxation. William Warren Kerr was chairman; the other members named were John Joseph Garvan, John Jolly, John Gibson Farleigh, William Thomas Missingham, John Thompson and Stephen Mills. Organised labour declined an invitation to nominate a member. Its terms of reference were the equitable distribution of the burden of taxation, the harmonising of Commonwealth and State taxation, special consideration for primary producers (particularly losses from adverse seasons) and the simplification of taxpayers' duties in relation to returns, objections and appeals. Tasmania and Western Australia (and, according to the Wikipedia list, Queensland) issued their own Letters Patent to the same commissioners so that State taxation could be examined jointly.

1. 1921After May 1921 Maurice Boyce Duffy, a Melbourne Trades Hall official, was appointed a commissioner by further Letters Patent; by 1922 John Joseph Garvan, who chaired the railway gauge royal commission from February 1921, was no longer listed among the members.
2. 2 November 1921First report (income tax) laid before Parliament.
3. 29 June 1922Second report laid before the Senate.
4. 9 August 1922Third report laid before the Senate.
5. November 1922Report on land tax, including the taxation of Crown leaseholds.

Its final report was presented on 13 June 1923, ending the commission. Its first report, on income tax, was tabled on 2 November 1921 and was partly given effect by income tax amendments passed in December 1921; later reports dealt with further income tax matters and, in November 1922, with land tax, recommending among other things that the tax on Crown leaseholds be retained.

• Incidence and equitable distribution of Commonwealth taxation
• Harmonisation of Commonwealth and State taxation
• Income tax treatment of primary producers
• Simplification of returns, objections and appeals
• Land tax, including the taxation of Crown leaseholds

Last in the portfolio of Department of the Treasury.

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