As unlikely as it seems, wage earners would be big winners from a cut in company tax, the head of the Treasury says.

Dr Martin Parkinson has told a tax reform forum in Sydney that Treasury research has found that more than half of the long-term burden of corporate tax is borne by wages.

Martin Parkinson, Secretary of the Department of Treasury. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"Paradoxically then, wage earners may be big winners from a company tax cut," he told the forum.

Australia would soon need to move beyond the government's stated commitment to cut the corporate tax rate by 1.5 percentage points by July 2015.