In both his 2013 and 2014 annual reports the Australian Inspector-General of Taxation wrote of the need to consider the adoption of a taxpayers' bill of rights in Australia. Whilst a charter of taxpayer rights has been a feature of ATO administration for almost two decades it does not provide a...

The “technological revolution” is influencing almost all aspects of our lives. Certainly the law has not been immune from its influence. Legal practice in Australia is currently undergoing a major disruption. Tax law has been at the vanguard of this phenomenon. The massive amount of...

In contrast to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, Australia has reacted belatedly to the phenomenon that is Islamic Finance. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that the delay is the result of a deeper consideration of the issues. The terms of reference provided to the...

The approach to administration of the Australian tax system has, over time, fluctuated between an adversarial and a co-operative approach. Currently, consistent with a move to a responsive regulatory strategy, the Australian Tax Office (“ATO”) has expressed its desire for a co-operative...

The hierarchy of the Australian Tax Office (“ATO”) presents a picture of the ATO being in a partnership with the tax profession. It is suggested that the relationship is, or should be, one of co-operation with the aim to maximize voluntary compliance with the tax system by taxpayers.Such a...

Australians are amongst the highest per capita emitters of carbon on Earth. The evidence is now clear that climate change will terribly impact all living things. As the window of opportunity to prevent this closes the country prevaricates on the need to act, rather deferring the cost to future...

The increase in the revenues of Arab nations arising from the surge in world oil prices, together with the withdrawal of Arab investment from the United States, presents an opportunity for Australia to increase its share of Arab investment. But Islamic investors are expected to invest only in...

In considering how tax administrators should relate to tax intermediaries, one approach has been to move tax administrators from a command and control posture to a more sophisticated form of regulation, as recently endorsed by the OECD's "enhanced relationship" model. For the last decade,...

The Japanese income tax system was redesigned following World War II. As such it has features of the systems of both Europe and the United States, although in many respects it is quite unique. Whilst it arguably contributed to Japan's meteoric rise to the status of an economic superpower, little...