Australia’s top earning suburbs revealed in ATO statistics

Beachfront villages and traditional high-wealth suburbs has dominated a list of Australia’s top-earning postcodes, released by the Australian Taxation Office as part of its annual statistical report yesterday.

The statistics, which cover the 2008-09 tax year when the GFC was perhaps at its peak in Australia, show incomes falling in a number of ritzy postcodes in Melbourne and Sydney, although incomes surged in the Victorian seaside enclave of Portsea (where the mean income jumped 24% to $198,987) and the New South Wales millionaire’s hideaway of Palm Beach (where incomes increased a whopping 36% to $153,605).

The top 10 suburbs by 2008-09 income:

The message? The closer you are to the sea, the better off you are likely to be.

The ATO statistics also suggest there was a sharp increase in business sales during the period.

The stats shows 19,905 individuals and 2,801 companies claimed small business capital gains tax concessions during the period, worth $1.9 billion and $0.8 billion respectively. These figures surged 38.9% and 40.9% from 2007-08.

The ATO says the increase was driven by small businesses utilising tax breaks in the Government’s GFC stimulus package and improving economic conditions.

The data dump that is the ATO’s statistical report also revealed a number of interesting facts about tax payment and business trends, including:

• Of the 12.3 million tax returns lodged, over 71% were lodged by tax agents. A further 19% were lodged via e-Tax, meaning the number of tax payers filling out tax return forms is now tiny.
• Individuals claimed $31.7 billion in total deductions, including $16.4 billion in work–related expenses.
• The ATO paid out $24.1 billion in refunds, while taxpayers were required to pay back $9.9 million.