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...

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 analyses the methods adopted by Australia and New Zealand to tax companies and their shareholders in four key periods from 1945 to 2005. For each period the major concern of the paper is with an analysis of the factors contributing to effective tax rates for different types of...

This article explores the notion of tax neutrality and its relationship to the taxation of business structures, especially for Australian small businesses. In particular, it analyses whether the introduction of a dual income tax (DIT) system, as advocated by Pitcher Partners could achieve this....

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...

Traditionally indirect taxes are linked with transactions in goods or services and understood as those taxes the incidence of which can be passed on to the buyer by the person required to defray the tax to the exchequer. Excise duties, customs duties, sales taxes, etc. are illustration of such...

Small businesses are a critical part of the Australian economy, and over the years a number of tax reforms have been implemented to try to assist them. A potential reform mooted has been for the introduction of a dual income tax (DIT) system. Pitcher Partners (an Australian accounting firm)...

In this article, the author outlines the historical context for the operation of the GST in Australia and its integration in the financial relations between the federal and state governments. The Australian experience is contrasted with Brazil's federal and state VAT regimes and the Brazilian...