Category: Tax Policy
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A withholding tax nightmare starts in 2016…
As we have looked at before, the previous government announced it was going to introduce a new non-resident withholding tax. This would apply where a taxpayer buys certain CGT assets from non-residents. Unfortunately, late last year the current government confirmed they were going to continue with this announcement. And now they have released a discussion…
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The end of tax policy?
Bill Shorten today said what is probably the worst tax policy statement I have ever heard… “If Tony Abbott wants to increase taxes – be it petrol, be it GST – he should take it to an election,”… If this becomes the political norm then revenue/taxation policy discussions can only occur once every three years,…
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Tax policy without Parliament
In a media release the Finance Minister has announced he will be Implementing the Fuel Excise Indexation announced in the Budget, even though it looks like the government cannot get the amendment through the Senate. He will effectively tell the Commissioner of Taxation to raise the Fuel Excise rate and promise to get the law…
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The end of Ireland as a global tax power…
In its most recent Budget, the Irish Government announced it would change its tax residence rules for companies – rules that have been used by thousands of multinationals to avoid tax. The residency rule currently are that a company is a tax resident where it has its central management and control, irrespective of where the…
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Non-residents entities trying to legally avoid lodging Aussie tax returns
I love working for North Asian entities. When the are looking to operate in another country (like Australia), they first ask the question “can we avoid having to pay tax and lodging tax returns in the other country?” They are also willing to change their practices to simplify tax outcomes – not reduce tax payable…
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Can Fairfax economists please get a lesson in tax…
Coming on the back of five wrong articles in the SMH And the Age on a mythical $8 billion of unpaid company tax (notice that the only paper in the Fairfax fold not claiming there is missing company tax is the AFR – because they actually understand taxation) another Fairfax journalist tells us he can…
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More proof that journalists are lobbyists
In the fairfax papers today is another “big companies should pay more tax” article. And like most of these articles, it is just rubbish. The article states that ASX listed companies have tax rates at less than 30% – even lower than 10% – from analysing their accounts and looking at their tax expense line.…
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Julia Gillard’s tax legacy
This is a policy rant so if you care about what the current tax law is, and don’t care what it could have been, then save yourself some time and don’t read this… This week we have both the release of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s biography telling us about her valuable legacy and her…
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Economists advising us on tax again…
Peter Martin, the economics editor at the Age writes… “The finance minister is two-thirds right. He says if the government can’t balance its books by cutting spending, “the only alternative to balance the books is to increase taxes. There’s only one other option. It’s neither an increase in tax nor a cut in spending. It’s…
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Tax changes still outstanding… Not much left
According to my count there are only 23 changes to the tax and super system left for the government to do to have completed all of the outstanding announcements. And most of these 23 are BORING… Number one is to get the mining tax, and the associated tax concessions, through at attempt two. There are…
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