Corporate advisers are calling on the Abbott government to consider taxing the wealthy - by scrapping a raft of concessions available to them - in order to achieve a hike in the GST and lower corporate and personal tax rates.

EY tax partner Glenn Williams told Fairfax Media that the only way the government could afford to deliver significant company tax cuts and personal tax cuts was to raise taxes elsewhere.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised not to increase the rate of GST before the last federal election. Credit:Andrew Meares

There was limited scope to raise the marginal tax rate - those earning over $180,000 can pay almost 50 per cent tax on the portion of income over that threshold - but the government could look at removing popular tax breaks that mainly benefited the wealthy, such as dividend imputation, negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions. These tax breaks are used by higher income earners to reduce their marginal tax rate, and thereby pay less tax.

"You can't go above 50 per cent [income tax for people on the top marginal tax rate] because then there's a disincentive to work," he said. "But there's a general consensus that the tax burden has to fall on those who are more well off."