The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has released its annual Taxation Statistics report for 2022-23, highlighting the biggest contributors to public revenues.

In 2022-23, the ATO raked in $577.4 billion in tax revenue, with 51.6 per cent of that collected from individual income taxes.

The statistics highlighted how reliant Australia’s tax system is on income tax to fill government coffers, just as the Treasury has reignited talks of tax reform.

“No sensible progress can be made on productivity, resilience or budget sustainability without proper consideration of more tax reform,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in his National Press Club address in June.

“This evolution in our revenue base is one of the reasons tax reform is so crucial to budget sustainability – on top of restraining spending, finding savings and working on longer‑term spending pressures.”

Industry bodies and economists have warned that Australia’s taxation system is overly reliant on income tax to cover growing public spending pressures, leaving the tax burden squarely on the shoulders of workers.

“Our system is over-reliant on personal income tax, and that is unfairly punishing Australians also facing cost of living and housing pressures,” CA ANZ chief executive Ainslie van Onselen said.

Australia’s share of personal income tax revenue, at 51.6 per cent, is more than double the 2022 OECD average of 23.6 per cent.

As structural budget pressures including defense and the NDIS grow, budget sustainability, tax reform and productivity have become front-of-center issues for the Albanese government.

“In the medium-term, structural pressures on the Budget will continue to build. The era of large revenue upgrades from commodity prices appears behind us and spending pressures remain evident in several areas,” Commonwealth Bank of Australia economists have warned.

After income tax, the next largest sources of ATO revenue included company tax (24.2 per cent), GST (14.2 per cent) and excise (4.4 per cent).

Only 4.2 per cent ($24 billion) came from super funds, while 0.7 per cent from other taxes such as the petroleum resources rent tax (PRRT), luxury car tax (LCT) and wine equalisation tax (WET).

Economist Saul Eslake pointed out that Australia’s GST contributes a relatively small share of tax revenue compared to other OECD countries, well below the OECD average of 20.75 per cent.

He called on the government to increase the GST rate and broaden its base, arguing that GST reform would be one of the fairest and least economically damaging ways to ensure long-term budget sustainability.

The government has also sought to pare back super tax concessions by levying an additional 15 per cent tax to super balances above $3 million, a measure that has been met with strong criticism due to its lack of indexation and the way it taxes unrealised gains.

ATO data revealed that the average superannuation balance increased from $164,000 in 2021-22 to $173,000 in 2022-23.

Chalmers said that the government would not rule out any specific tax reform measures ahead of its productivity summit upcoming in August, where tax reform is set to be a hot topic.