The costs of an UBI

Simon Cowan at the CIS looks at what a UBI would cost where no welfare recepient ends up worse off (which is the only politically achievable way to do one).

In Australia the net cost would be between $103 billion and $231 billion a year.

To pay for this, they would need to either:

• Increase GST to 40%
• Have a land tax of $20,000 to $30,000 a year
• Have marginal tax rates of 60% for median income earners and 80% for high income earners

The sums would be much the same in NZ per capita.