If Australia's top economists were deciding the election, they'd vote for Labor's cuts to negative gearing and against the Coalition's cuts to company tax.

Of the 23 leading economists polled for the Scope BusinessDay Economic Survey, those that answered the questions about tax backed Labor's plan 10 to three and opposed the Coalition's plan 10 to six.

The key objection to the Coalition's company tax cuts was that they would have to be funded, most likely from bracket creep, higher taxes, or cuts to government spending. Estimates of the ongoing cost range from $9 billion to $13 billion per year.