Open AccessINCOME FROM PRIVATE MEDICAL PRACTICE IN AUSTRALIA 1966–1978. AN ANALYSIS OF TAXATION STATISTICS
Author(s) -
Taylor Richard
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1984.tb00418.x
Subject(s) - salary , earnings , net income , gross income , adjusted gross income , index (typography) , demographic economics , wage , personal income , economics , total personal income , income tax , labour economics , consumption (sociology) , personal consumption expenditures price index , distribution (mathematics) , medical expenses , wages and salaries , public economics , accounting , state income tax , medicine , economic growth , tax reform , social science , mathematical analysis , emergency medicine , mathematics , sociology , world wide web , computer science , market economy
Summary The evidence from taxation statistics indicates that private medical practitioners in Australia have improved their income relative to most other professions since 1966/67, receiving three to four times the income of salary and wage earners by the late 1970s. Evidence concerning the frequency distribution of high income earners in various occupation groups also suggests that private medical practitioners are the highest paid group in Australia. Data on average net and estimated average gross annual income per doctor indexed for the Consumer Price Index, Average Weekly Earnings and the Medical Fees Index indicate a peak income in 1975/76, mainly as a result of medical fee rises. There has been a secular decline during the period under review in net income as a proportion of gross income of private doctors as a result of increases in practice “expenses”. This increase in “expenses” was not accompanied by increases in the proportion of expenses accounted for by wages paid, and this phenomenon may be partly a result of the increased application of tax avoidance schemes which enable personal consumption expenditure to be subsumed with “business expenses”.