CANBERRA: Australia’s richest live in harbourside Sydney and earn more than eight times the nation’s poorest, who live in rural NSW, Tax Office statistics show.
The latest Taxation Statistics for 2012-13, based on information people report in their tax returns, again highlights the enormous pay gap between the nation’s richest and poorest – there’s an average (mean) income difference of $155,823 between the richest postcode (2027) and poorest postcode (2403).
A total of 5980 Australia’s highest earners fell within postcode 2027, which takes in Edgecliff, Rushcutters Bay, Darling Point and Point Piper in Sydney. It took the number one spot in 2011-12 as well. In this area, which falls within Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate of Wentworth, the average taxable income was $177,514.
In the poorest area, postcode 2403 in rural NSW, takes in Myall Creek – the site of the massacre in 1838 where 30 unarmed indigenous Australians were murdered – as well as Delungra and Gragin. Here there were 350 people and the average taxable income was $21,691.
The information, based on the returns of 12.77 million taxpayers, does not account for people in the cash economy or with money sitting in offshore tax havens. But it does take into account tax breaks such as negative gearing when assessing average taxable income.
The data also shows the nation’s highest earning professions. The top 10 included 3570 surgeons with average taxable income of $361,202.
The next highest earning professions were 3015 anaesthetists with average taxable income of $319,033; 7525 “internal medicine specialists” (diagnosing internal disorders) with taxable income of $263,601; 5090 financial dealers with average income of $219,213 and 2645 judicial and other legal professionals with an income of $192,189.
The remaining top 10 included psychiatrists, mining engineers, “other medical practitioners”, chief executives and managing directors and “generalist medical practitioners”.
In terms of postcodes, six of the top 10 richest were in inner and eastern Sydney, three were in Victoria, and one was in Perth.
