Inheritance Taxation in Australia: Historical Data

The purpose of this data set is to identify long term trends in the reach and effects of Australia’s inheritance and gift taxes. It compiles figures from 1914, when the Commonwealth estate duty was introduced, through to the mid-1980s, when all Commonwealth and State-level taxes and duties had ceased to apply. It includes yearly figures for numbers of taxable deceased estates, gross assets (as assessed), the amount of duty payable, and the amount of revenue collected by federal and State governments. And, as far as possible, it compiles data relating to the age, gender, occupation and location of tax donors. The data set also includes some calculations relating to tax incidence and donors’ wealth brackets. The raw data were compiled from the annual Year Book Australia, the Year Books of the Australian States, the annual Report of the Commissioner of Taxation, and demographic data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. All of these publications are available in the public domain and none of the data are subject to copyright.