Tax toke: the budget office models GST on marijuana

The federal government could raise $300 million a year in tax if it legalised marijuana. 

Just what are they smoking down in the Parliamentary Budget Office?

The normally conservative federal institution has done some highly unusual economic modelling based on the question: how much money could the Turnbull government raise if it legalised and then applied the GST to marijuana?

The answer is about $300 million a year.

And that doesn't even include the increased tax toke – sorry, take – from the inevitable boom in sales of pizza and Doritos.

The PBO, which was set up to provide independent and non-partisan budget analysis to politicians, did the costings at the request of libertarian crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm, who wants marijuana fully legalised.

If such a policy were introduced in July 2017 it would raise $600 million in GST revenue in the first two years, the PBO found.

That money...

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