Friday, March 20, 2009

2006-7 Income and Tax for the ACT and Australia

Following up on Friday's post I've calculated the per capita breakdown of different income sources for all ACT postcodes and Australia as a whole:

I included both taxable and non-taxable individuals in my numbers - but total is still much less than the total population. For Australia the total is 11.8 million vs. about 21 million people in Australia. There is a lot one could learn from this data, so here are just some points that caught my attention:

1. As is well known the highest income ACT suburbs are all in the "Inner South" surrounding the parliamentary triangle. The poorest postcodes are all in Tuggeranong and Belconnen with Gungahlin also having lowish incomes. These are all outer suburbs. This is the standard Australian pattern of the rich living near the centre and the poor in the outer suburbs. The 2601 postcode though is strangely not so wealthy. I think this is because it not only includes the CBD but also the ANU campus with its student population.

2. Even the poorest ACT postcode, 2911, has a higher income than the Australian average.

3. Landlords on average lose money in all ACT postcodes and in Australia as a whole. Rental income is for some reason unusually high among Gungahlin residents.

4. Not all income sources are included as the numbers for individual sources do not add up to the totals.

5. Capital gains, not surprisingly, are very concentrated in the two highest income inner south postcodes (and Hall - a rural village in the ACT).

6. Business income from primary production (agriculture, mining etc.) is negative in almost all postcodes and in Australia as a whole. Not surprisingly it's concentrated in Hall and Pialligo. But non-primary production business makes money on average in all postcodes.

I'll be continuing this series with at least a couple more analyses.

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