TaxRambling.com

If you read the newspapers it is those evil multinationals. But a recent speech by the Commissioner might dispel that myth. Have a look at these quotes:

The first cab off the rank will be the large market corporate tax gap which we will release formally next month. In the lead up to that formal release, today I will share with you the gap we have estimated, based on 2014–15 data.

It is approximately $2.5 billion; equivalent to about 6% of the collections for that market, and similar to the gap estimated for large corporates in the UK.

This $2.5 billion gap is way below the numbers that have been thrown around by various commentators – some wildly claiming it to be up to $50 billion.

The best ever estimate of the tax being avoided by those dodgy multinational we have ev er had, before we introduced the most onerous anti-avoidance rules in the world to apply only to them (the MAAL and the Diverted Profits Tax), is $2.5 billion a year. Given the recent changes to our tax laws this amount will be less today than in was in the 2014/15 year.

Sounds bad… But what about those poor hard done by workers…

Our early work and preliminary findings on the gaps for small business and individuals are telling us that there are likely to be bigger gaps in each of those markets than in the large market.

The industry that best comply with the tax system are those large dodgy multinationals! Its the small businesses and individuals who are much much worse.

In 2014–15, more than $22 billion was claimed for work-related expenses. While each of the individual amounts over-claimed is relatively small, the sum and overall revenue impact for the population involved could be significant – in the vicinity of, or even higher than the large market tax gap of $2.5 billion – and that’s just for this category of deductions, work-related expenses.

But would those pure individuals claim deductions they are not entitled too???

In 2014–15, around 6.3 million people made claims against clothing expenses totalling almost $1.8 billion. That would mean that almost half of the individual taxpayer population was required to wear a uniform or protective clothing or had some special requirements for things like sunglasses and hats.

The Commissioner is about the reveal the tax gap, the amount of tax “dodged”, by those evil multinationals and those pure innocent individuals. And what will the media say when the we discover that both in percentage and gross amounts the real tax dodgers are the individuals. The multinational cannot even come close to being as dodgy as the workers of Australia!

Work in tax for 5 minutes and you will know that this is 100% true…