"10th smallest black economy out of 158 countries". Put another way, Australia is one of the top 10 tax evading countries in the world.
It also states Australia is well below the OECD average of 6%. Also I'm not convinced those reports are entirely accurate. From my own experience living overseas, I've met people who get paid digitally, via bank deposit, but do not pay income tax (even although they are required to). In his particular country the employer isn't responsible for taking tax out of wages. It's the employee's responsibility. The person I met, who didn't pay income tax, said he didn't pay because the law only allowed authorities to go back 3 years. After not paying for 20+ years, he thinks 3 years tax is worth the gamble.
I won't disclose that on a public forum . But I will say that country also allows up to approx $300,000 AUD tax-free if the income is derived offshore. Also the highest income bracket doesn't kick in until about $500,000 AUD. Many countries have much fairer tax laws than Australia. The trade off is usually they have no social security. I've also noticed they often have much lower rates of crime.
The countries without social security, that I've lived in, tend to have stronger family financial ties. It's quite common for kids to financially support parents or their siblings when they don't have enough. Also there's a lot less unemployment.
We don't have social security here in Singapore, at least not a working one, but youth unemployment or under employment is very high. The kids can hardly support themselves. Cars are especially expensive. In many cases, it's parents supporting kids in their 20s and 30s, although not as bad as in China where parents need to buy cars and apartments for their heavily indebted 30-year old prince and princess (a result of single child policy). Over here, the "kids" that can financially support parents are Gen X kids, in their late-30s and older "kids". In the case of single child families, it's very difficult or impossible for their kids to support both aging parents without social security, especially so if their kid is married and has a child to support. With this kind of demographics, it's going to end badly but you will never see this kind of reports being written on Western media. Why are HK youths protesting? Is it about the communist party? It's more than that, it's about high property prices, high cost of living, zero social security. The protests are nothing to do with democracy or China.
I think it goes both ways. If the parents are well off, they often spoil their kids (especially only sons). I agree, it tends to be Gen X that support their parents. I can't see the current generation supporting anyone, even themselves.
Most people I know have 2 or 3 jobs just to scrape by. Cost of living is very high here and rent is rediculous so most have roommates too. Ski town/college town the usual. Kids living with mom and dads credit cards hehe.
