RMIT ABC Fact Check has scrutinised several such claims — on negative gearing, on dividend imputation, and on capital gains — in recent weeks.
In each case, we found the claim to be misleading.
And in each case, there has been a common focus — taxable income.
The problem is, taxable income is a lousy way to analyse whether a household is wealthy or not.
Broadly, households — particularly the well-off ones — can use all sorts of tools to reduce their taxable incomes: by negatively gearing losses on investment properties; by claiming other business losses; or by transferring assets to family members, for example.
Moreover, under the very generous superannuation arrangements introduced by the Howard government in 2006, individuals can transfer up to $1.6 million into a tax-free, retirement-phase superannuation account.
That means many relatively wealthy households in retirement have low or zero taxable incomes.
In a recent submission to a House of Representatives inquiry, the Grattan Institute offered the example of a self-funded retiree couple with a $3.2 million super balance, plus their own home, and a $200,000 portfolio of Australian shares.
Should households such as these be counted "among the lowest income earners in our community", as Mr Frydenberg and others in the Government have been doing in their attacks on Labor's proposed reforms?
Mr Frydenberg is technically accurate when he says that 80 per cent of those affected by Labor's plan to scrap cash refunds for excess franking credits are on taxable incomes under $37,000.
This only tells a small part of the story — and one that is not very useful in determining the real impact of the policy.
In the case of Labor's dividend imputation policy, which particularly affects retirees, this omission is particularly glaring, simply because most retirees pay little, if any, tax.
Furthermore, taxable income often has little to do with wealth, telling us little about the value of assets owned or about various income streams during retirement.
The conclusion is similar in relation to Labor's policy to restrict tax concessions for negatively geared investment properties.
Experts contacted by Fact Check took issue with Mr Frydenberg's use of taxable income as a proxy for wealth, partly due to the very nature of negative gearing, which is a tax deduction that reduces taxable income.
A similar conclusion can be reached in relation to Labor's plan to cut the capital gains tax discount from 50 to 25 per cent (thereby increasing to 75 per cent the portion of the capital gain to be taxed).
