Australian tax laws have contained a general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) for over a century. The income tax GAAR proved robust for over half a century but ceased to be effective when read down in the 1970s and was replaced in 1981. The current GAAR has been recently amended to include specific...

By the time of Federation in Australia in 1901, all of Australia’s six States (then British Colonies) had introduced income taxes in some form. This chapter traces the subsequent development of the centralisation of Australia’s income taxation system from 1915, when the central...

In the midst of World War II, the Australian federal Labor government effectively appropriated the states’ income tax systems, with the understanding these would be returned after the war. A state challenge on constitutional grounds in the courts was unsuccessful. The appropriation suited...

Business tax reform in Australia. Includes analysis by local and overseas industry experts of past tax reforms, our current business tax system and potential future developments as canvassed by the Australian Government's Future Tax System Review (Henry Review)

The Australian judicial concept of income involves a narrow approach which is similar to that taken by the courts in the United Kingdom but which stands in sharp contrast to the much broader approach taken by the courts in the United States. The early Australian income tax statutes, however,...

The introduction of a broad-based indirect tax at the State level is impractical for constitutional reasons. Attention has instead turned to the possibility of alternative new taxes at the State level, such as a State income tax