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Expat workers have cost $450m to Australia in HECS
Expat workers have cost $450m to Australia in HECS
| Published: | 30 Mar at 9 AM |
Australian university graduates who relocate abroad to work for extended periods of time have cost the country in the region of $450m in unpaid HECS debts since the introduction of the payment scheme in 1989, revealed a new study.
Australian National University academics Tim Higgins and the designer of the HECS scheme Bruce Chapman carried out an investigation which discovered that at the present estimated rate, the figure of the cumulative forgone revenue will top $1bn in the near future, reports the Conversation.
The authors explained that as there was so little information about the amount of graduates that had moved abroad, or the length of time they had stayed working there, they had opted to be conservative with the modeling’s application so that the numbers they are prepared to report are able to be thought of as understatements of the actual forgone HECS collection.
The authors stated in their study that the Australian government have the potential to recover the money in a range of ways. They explained that it could make agreements with other nations to collect the debts by using their internal revenue services by using the same income-contingent perimeters that are in force in Australia.
Another option is for Australia to incorporate HECS in addition to income tax into its income tax agreements with other nations. However, the costs of the transactions would be high considering the relatively low amounts of money involved.
The authors said that the most feasible proposal would be to make students who signed the HECS debt obligation contract repay the minimum yearly debt if they are planning on moving overseas for longer than a short period. This is said to be around $1,900 per year.
Australian National University academics Tim Higgins and the designer of the HECS scheme Bruce Chapman carried out an investigation which discovered that at the present estimated rate, the figure of the cumulative forgone revenue will top $1bn in the near future, reports the Conversation.
The authors explained that as there was so little information about the amount of graduates that had moved abroad, or the length of time they had stayed working there, they had opted to be conservative with the modeling’s application so that the numbers they are prepared to report are able to be thought of as understatements of the actual forgone HECS collection.
The authors stated in their study that the Australian government have the potential to recover the money in a range of ways. They explained that it could make agreements with other nations to collect the debts by using their internal revenue services by using the same income-contingent perimeters that are in force in Australia.
Another option is for Australia to incorporate HECS in addition to income tax into its income tax agreements with other nations. However, the costs of the transactions would be high considering the relatively low amounts of money involved.
The authors said that the most feasible proposal would be to make students who signed the HECS debt obligation contract repay the minimum yearly debt if they are planning on moving overseas for longer than a short period. This is said to be around $1,900 per year.
