The Financial Services Council (FSC) intends to push for tax reforms that will include the removal of stamp duty on life insurance policies.

“The reform is now urgent,” FSC CEO John Brogden told the council’s conference on the Gold Coast last week. “We want to see the abolition of inefficient state taxes and the increase in GST to finish Australian tax reform.”

He says the FSC has been calling since 2010 for this to happen, but nothing has been done at either state or federal level.

“In the interceding two years there has been an election and a tax summit, yet there has been almost no action by any governments – Commonwealth or state – to finish the job,” Mr Brogden said.

“The GST was always flawed due to the political compromises at the time of its inception which saw fresh food, education and health excluded. 

“However, the need to overhaul the GST must be a priority as a remarkable 40% of all spending now falls outside of the GST.”

Reform has already arrived for the ACT, which is the first Australian government to decide to abolish stamp duty on all insurance from 2016.