No metaphor is dearer to the hearts of Australian tax scholars and practitioners than the fruit and tree depiction of income and capital. An important characterisation in early economic theory, the agricultural allegory was imported into Australian income tax law not long after the adoption of...

‘Simplification' has been the mantra of tax reformers and tax deformers since the late 1950s and has frequently been cited as a rationale for tax changes in the closing years of the twentieth century and the opening years of the twenty-first. The near universal agreement by tax critics that...

The scope of the Northern Territory stamp duty was tested on September 30 in an appeal to Australia's High Court, the final court of appeal, in a case (Alcan (NT) Alumina Pty Ltd. v. Commissioner of Territory Revenue, [2009] HCA 41) involving Alcan, the multinational aluminum manufacturer and...

While the calculation of taxable income under Australian income tax law is similar to the calculation of net profits under accounting standards, there are some fundamental differences between the two systems. These derive in part from the structure of the legislation, in part from the...

Civil law scholars often assume there are general differences in the approaches taken to the interpretation of income tax laws in civil law jurisdictions and common law jurisdictions. However, these differences may be dwarfed by the different approaches taken by two camps within the common law...

After many decades of actual and proposed reform, Australia's rules for the taxation of debt arrangements remain deeply flawed. A notable problem is the absence of appropriate rules for dissected debt arrangements, where a creditor dissects a debt into interest and principal repayment components...

The income tax and GST laws contain an array of rules that apply to debt and gains in the nature of interest. The definitions of “debt” or “loan” and amounts in the nature of “interest” vary across the provisions and tax officials, taxpayers and courts must decide whether the terms...

The unprecedented economic changes taking place in China over the past three decades have led to significant new fiscal pressures for the central and provincial governments. The relative decline of public ownership and rise of the private sector has forced governments to substitute revenues from...

Financial arrangements have played an important role in commercial transactions since long before the adoption of Commonwealth income taxation in Australia. The ad hoc, inconsistent and often arbitrary tax rules that apply to them cause considerable confusion and add greatly to complexity....

This paper provides an overview and assessment of alternative methods of taxing capital income. We begin by considering why, and to what extent, capital income should be taxed. Having established a reasonably robust case for such taxation, we then review the difficulties of taxing capital income...