It's five years since Australia had its last serious look at its tax system.
Tax experts, business and consumers will be hoping Treasurer Joe Hockey's new tax discussion will result in greater action in securing a fairer system than the limited response to the Henry tax review in 2010.
The key statistics from former Treasury secretary Ken Henry's review was that of the 125 taxes at the time, just 10 brought in 90 per cent of the country's overall revenue.
Mr Hockey will release a much-promised discussion paper aimed at unravelling the complex tax system on Monday.
The paper will lay out what challenges each tax faces over the next 40 years or so.
"The problem we face is that our current tax system, which was designed before the 1950s, is ill-suited to the 2050s," Mr Hockey told a recent tax conference.
There is still an over-reliance on income taxes, while Mr Hockey has raised questions over the long term future of the GST faced with the changing behaviour of consumers and global commerce.
Mr Hockey has repeatedly sounded warnings about bracket creep, which occurs when people are pushed up into higher tax brackets as a result of wage inflation.
Average wage earners of about $75,000 are fast approaching the second highest tax threshold of $80,000.
"If people are left in those higher tax brackets, this can lead to negative financial and economic outcomes, for individuals and the nation," Mr Hockey says.
One tax change that has already been flagged is a 1.5 per cent cut in the corporate rate for small firms as part of a small business package to be released as part of the May 12 budget.
Business Council of Australia head Jennifer Westacott is concerned about a dual tax system for large and small companies and wants a commitment to lower the company tax rate for all firms.
"We have a very very high company tax rate, it is making us uncompetitive. That is going to cost jobs and our capacity to reinvest in the economy," she says.
Any tax changes resulting from the review will be taken to the 2016 election.
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