Australian Politics

A 16 or 17 year-old earning 90$/day shouldn't pay ANY tax IMHO. As a teenager I and my classmates weren't using roads, the hospital system, the courts, or most of the facilities that public funds go towards anywhere near the extent that we use them as adults. I hope I can pay it all forward when I get a full time gig given how much public money I've been directly involved in spending.

I hear you - if I no longer paid my tax now, it wouldn't make a difference to the ATO financially. However, if all middle-income taxpayers in my demographic who pay between around $30,000 and $80,000 in tax were to stop paying the ATO, they would feel that.

I forget the tax brackets decades later, but $90x2-3 days a week was getting taxed enough that I was losing about two hours per shift on tax. I remember thinking of it in hours at work. The first two hours paid Mr. tax man, the remaining six were for me. I remember that I was making $7 per hour. My annual tax came out at less than $2k, before deductions etc. If all the kids in the same boat as me didn't have to pay tax, I doubt it'd make much difference to the ATO.