For any organisation or business, envisioning the future so that they can position themselves for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead is a critical factor for long term success. Managing information, making sense of it, and using it to develop strategies based on differentiation is a...

The ATO transformed itself into a pre-eminent tax administration over a period of 20 years. It changed from an unremarkable administration into a thought leader on tax administration globally. It did this through inspired and inspiring leadership and the engagement, commitment, innovation and...

The three key theses of this paper are:1. If people have a view of taxation that extends beyond numbers to the broader civil, social and economic benefits that they expect for themselves and for new generations, they will be more likely to shoulder a shared responsibility for the care and...

The implementation of the New Tax System package, which included the GST, was a landmark change to the Australian tax system. Not only did we introduce a GST, but at the same time we implemented a raft of significant tax reforms to Australia's income tax system including a unique Australian...

This paper starts with the proposition that the descriptor, ‘tax reform' can apply to different elements of a tax system. It argues that reforms affecting one aspect of the tax system often, but not always, provide the incentive or opportunity for reform of other components of the tax system....

This paper considers how academia can influence tax policy and administration, highlighting examples where this has occurred. However, overall it concludes that the impact of academia does not appear on its face to have been as substantial as one might have sought. This paper explores the...

The objectives of equity, efficiency and simplicity are not always aligned and in policy development trade-offs between these criteria are often necessary. Given that trade-offs are inherently a feature of policy development, questions arise as to how relevant values are to be ascribed to...

This paper argues that corruption has a corrosive impact on the well-being of a nation, and is especially damaging to tax administrations. The paper compares descriptively the contrasting fortunes of countries that are perceived to be afflicted by substantially different levels of corruption,...

This paper considers the role that the Commissioner of Taxation should play in terms of policy development. It concludes that there is an indirect role that the administration should play but that this does not amount to the Commissioner making the tax law