The Great Australian Wealth Extraction
Every year, tens of billions of dollars earned in Australia are transferred overseas through personal remittances.
A remittance is simply money earned here and sent to someone overseas.
The infographic below shows how it works:
TO AUSTRALIA.
IN AUSTRALIA
IS SENT OVERSEAS.
AUSTRALIA
REMITTANCE
FOREIGN ECONOMIES.
AUSTRALIA
Official World Bank data places outbound personal remittances from Australia at approximately $24 to $25 billion a year. Broader industry estimates place the total closer to $38 billion.
That is Australian-earned income leaving the Australian economy.
The jobs are here. The wages are earned here. Australian taxpayers fund the infrastructure, institutions and public services that make those earnings possible.
Once that money is transferred overseas, it is no longer available to be spent with Australian businesses, deposited in Australian banks, invested in Australian enterprises or circulated through Australian communities.
At this scale, remittances represent a major transfer of Australian-earned wealth overseas.
Revive Australia believes Australia should impose a 30% tax on outbound personal remittances.
The principle is straightforward:
If income is earned in Australia and transferred out of the Australian economy, Australia should retain a share of it.
How a 30% remittance tax would work
The tax would be added to the amount being transferred overseas.
If someone wants to send $1,000 overseas, the recipient would still receive the full $1,000.
The sender would pay:
$1,000 remittance + $300 remittance tax = $1,300, plus any provider fee.
The tax would be collected at the point of transfer by regulated international-transfer providers and administered by the ATO.
TAX WORKS
WEALTH IN AUSTRALIA.
and raises revenue that can be put to work here.
AUSTRALIA
The scale of the wealth leaving Australia is growing rapidly
The amount of Australian-earned wealth being transferred overseas has risen dramatically.
Estimated net remittance outflows increased from approximately $9.3 billion in 2019 to $21.7 billion in 2024.
In just five years, net outflows more than doubled.
Income retained in Australia continues to circulate through the Australian economy. It can be spent with Australian businesses, deposited in Australian banks, invested in Australian companies and assets, used to purchase homes, or saved by Australian households.
Income transferred overseas begins circulating somewhere else.
At more than $20 billion in estimated net outflows each year, this is no longer a marginal economic issue. It represents a substantial and growing transfer of wealth out of Australia.
HAVE MORE THAN
DOUBLED.
IS LEAVING THE COUNTRY
AT AN ACCELERATING RATE.
AUSTRALIA
How the wealth extraction works
The mechanics are straightforward.
Wealth is generated in Australia through Australian jobs, wages and economic activity.
Those earnings are made possible within an economy supported by Australian infrastructure, public services, institutions, law enforcement, transport networks, hospitals, schools and a stable financial system.
When a portion of that income is transferred overseas as a personal remittance, it leaves the Australian economy.
That money is no longer available to circulate through Australian businesses, savings and investment. It instead supports household consumption, saving and investment overseas.
Australia continues carrying the costs associated with generating the economic opportunity.
The wealth leaves.
That is why Revive Australia describes large-scale remittance outflows as a form of wealth extraction.
Australia creates the jobs. Australia maintains the infrastructure. Australia provides the economic opportunity. Australia should have a legitimate interest in ensuring more of the resulting wealth remains here.
IN AUSTRALIA.
OPPORTUNITY
WEALTH
THE CONDITIONS.
THE WEALTH LEAVES.
AUSTRALIA
Migration-led growth has to deliver for Australians
For years Australians have been told that high migration will produce greater economic growth and prosperity.
The measure that matters is whether that prosperity improves the lives of Australians and strengthens the country over the long term.
The migration system should not encourage an extractive relationship in which Australia supplies the employment, infrastructure, public services and economic opportunity while a substantial share of the resulting income is continually directed overseas.
If Australia is going to absorb the costs associated with population growth, then more of the wealth produced through that growth should remain within the Australian economy.
Australian prosperity should build Australian businesses, Australian savings, Australian homes, Australian families and Australian national wealth.
Why 30%?
The tax has two purposes.
First, it changes the financial incentive to continually transfer income out of Australia.
Second, it raises revenue from the money that continues to be sent overseas.
Under Revive Australia's modelling, a 30% remittance tax applied to the official outbound-remittance base produces approximately $7.3 billion in annual revenue before behavioural change and exclusions.
Using the broader industry estimate of outbound remittances, the static revenue figure rises to approximately $11.4 billion a year.
That means a 30% remittance tax could generate more than $10 billion a year under the broader static estimate.
Actual revenue would depend on how strongly people respond to the tax, which is precisely why Revive Australia has also modelled substantial reductions in remittance volumes.
What happens if people send less money?
A remittance tax is intended to change behaviour.
If sending money overseas becomes substantially more expensive, some people will send less.
Revive Australia's behavioural modelling deliberately tests that outcome.
Across the three stress-test scenarios in the policy paper, a 30% tax still produces approximately $3.7 billion to $9.9 billion in annual revenue.
Both outcomes advance the policy objective.
Where remittances continue, Australia receives revenue.
Where remittances fall, more Australian-earned wealth remains in Australia.
Success should therefore be measured by more than the amount collected by the Treasury. It should also be measured by the reduction in outbound remittances and the amount of Australian-earned income retained in the domestic economy.
OUTFLOWS FALL?
TEST 30% TAX REVENUE $0.0 BILLION / YEAR
TEST 30% TAX REVENUE $0.00 BILLION / YEAR
TEST 30% TAX REVENUE $0.0 BILLION / YEAR
RAISES BILLIONS
PATHS TO SUCCESS
IN REVENUE
STAYS HERE
MORE WEALTH RETAINED
IN AUSTRALIA.
AUSTRALIA
Put the money to work for Australians
Revenue raised from Australian-earned income leaving the country should be put to work for Australians.
Revive Australia proposes placing Australian families at the centre of that investment.
Australia faces a serious long-term challenge in declining family formation and birth rates. Young Australians are being asked to establish families in an environment of high housing costs, heavy taxation and growing household expenses.
A remittance tax capable of generating billions of dollars creates an opportunity to pursue a serious national pro-family agenda.
Australian families
Revenue could fund targeted newborn, parental and early-childhood support designed to reduce the financial cost of having and raising children.
Starting a family should not impose an ever-growing financial penalty on Australians who choose to have children.
Family tax relief
Billions in remittance-tax revenue could support substantial tax relief for Australian families.
Parents should be able to keep more of what they earn and have greater freedom to decide how their household income is spent.
Housing
Revenue could be directed toward helping Australian families into home ownership.
Stable and affordable housing is fundamental to family formation. A country that wants more young Australians to marry, have children and establish permanent roots should make home ownership easier to achieve.
Essential health services
Revenue could strengthen essential health services, including services relied upon by mothers, babies, children and families.
A growing population requires health infrastructure that keeps pace.
National infrastructure
At higher revenue levels, the tax could also support major national and regional infrastructure investment.
Roads, transport, energy, water and productive infrastructure create lasting assets and strengthen Australia's capacity to support future generations.
Fiscal repair
Additional revenue could also contribute to enforcement and debt reduction, reducing the financial burden passed on to future Australians.
At different revenue levels, the policy could support increasingly substantial packages.
At around $3 billion, it could fund targeted newborn, parental and early-childhood support.
At around $5 billion, it could support family assistance and significant family tax relief.
At around $7 billion, it could support broader family measures, tax relief and housing assistance.
At around $9 billion, it could support family measures alongside major investment in essential services and infrastructure.
At the upper static estimate of approximately $11.4 billion, Australia could fund a broad package of family support, tax relief, housing assistance, national infrastructure and fiscal repair.
TO WORK HERE.
FAMILIES
RELIEF
INFRASTRUCTURE
AUSTRALIA'S PRIORITIES
RETURN THE REVENUE
TO AUSTRALIANS.
AUSTRALIA
A tax that can actually be collected
Australia already has a highly regulated banking and international payments system.
Under Revive Australia's proposal, the ATO would administer the remittance tax and regulated financial institutions would collect it when a taxable personal remittance is made.
Banks, registered remittance businesses, regulated international payment services and relevant regulated crypto providers would act as collection agents.
The tax would be collected upfront.
A sender seeking to transfer $1,000 overseas would pay the $1,000 transfer amount, the $300 remittance tax and any normal provider fee. The recipient would still receive the full $1,000.
Senders would also be required to declare the purpose of the transfer.
The proposal is directed at personal remittances, not ordinary commercial activity.
Documented payments for imports, genuine business investment, securities purchases, regulated pension and superannuation payments, capital transfers and defined direct tuition, medical and humanitarian payments would sit outside the taxable personal-remittance category.
There would be no general tax-free threshold.
The tax would apply from the first dollar of a taxable personal remittance.
Evasion should have consequences
A serious tax requires serious enforcement.
The system would need to deal with attempts to disguise personal remittances as other forms of payment, split transfers into smaller amounts, route payments through third countries, use nominees or deliberately shift transactions into undeclared cash or unreported crypto channels.
Knowingly false declarations and fabricated documentation should attract substantial penalties.
Australia should also publish regular data on remittance volumes, revenue collected, exclusions, refunds, enforcement activity and evidence of transfers moving into informal channels.
The principle should be simple:
Collect the tax upfront. Trace evasion. Enforce the law.
Keep Australian-earned wealth in Australia
Australia has allowed tens of billions of dollars earned here to be transferred overseas every year without a dedicated federal remittance tax.
The scale of those transfers is now too large to ignore.
Australians fund the infrastructure and institutions that make economic activity possible.
Australian businesses create jobs and opportunities.
Australian households carry the costs associated with housing pressure, population growth and stretched public services.
More of the wealth generated through that system should remain in this country.
A 30% remittance tax would change the incentive to transfer Australian-earned income offshore, retain more wealth within the Australian economy and potentially raise billions of dollars for Australian families and Australia's future.
Remittances are a form of wealth extraction. Plain and simple.
It is time to tax remittances and keep Australian-earned wealth in Australia.
Read the full policy proposal
The Great Australian Wealth Extraction sets out Revive Australia's full proposal for a 30% remittance tax, including the economic case, revenue modelling, administration, enforcement and proposed uses of the proceeds.