The Australian income tax and transfer system has undergone considerable reform since the mid 1980s. As a number of commentators have pointed out, one impact of reforms to cash transfers for families, as well as of some reforms to direct taxes, has been the evolution of a defacto system of...

The purpose of this article is to examine trends in ‘middle class welfare’ in Australia, defined as the extent of cash transfers going to working age families with incomes above the second decile in the distribution of family incomes, net of the income taxes that these families pay. We use...