Australia Has A Tax Problem
Australia has a tax problem and I am going to suggest something to remedy that. The ATO is in a hole for some $52 billion, mostly from Australians who owe back taxes. In the most recent financial year that we have records for, some 91 Aussies who earned more than a million dollars paid no tax on that income at all. They managed to do this via creative tax accounting paying professionals hundreds of thousands to make it happen. These folk would rather do this than pay their fair share of tax on their earnings. There is an American flavour to this – the idea that the rich shouldn’t have to pay a lot of tax is promulgated by the wealthy and the GOP in the US. America has a national debt of $37 trillion and this correlates with the reduction of taxes on the wealthy over the last few decades. The top income tax rate was in the 90% range in the 1960s and that has come down to 37% as of now – that is a huge drop. Company taxes have come down substantially, as well, in recent times. Wealthy individuals and corporations are not paying their fair share of tax.
“ABC investigative reporters at work, as Four Corners exposes $50 billion ATO losses. The old joke about feeling like a mushroom, kept in the dark and fed on shit, comes to mind when considering what really goes on in the halls of power. Macro corruption is the term used to describe the situation in Australia, where the amounts are very large when dirty deeds are done downunder. Scamming millions of dollars from the tax office via bogus GST claims would be an unlikely occurrence one would think. I mean, the ATO is a pillar of our whole national edifice, so it must be bristling with top line security, right? Wrong, it is a $50 billion black hole bad joke on that score.”
Stripping Australian Citizenship From Serial Tax Avoiders
My suggestion is to get serious about tax avoidance and to close off the many loopholes in the system. In addition, I would like to see serial tax avoiders pay the ultimate cost of losing their citizenship. Why should those unwilling to contribute their fair share of tax revenue to the nation be entitled to the rights of citizenship? If they don’t want to properly be part of the nation by making this country a better place for all they don’t deserve to be part of it at all. Statelessness is a very bad place to find yourself and history tells us that few come out of this intact. Wealthy Australians who avoid paying their fair share of tax in a progressive taxation system are committing serious financial crimes against the people of Australia. It is not a joke and you are not a clever dick getting away with not paying tax in the community you reside in. The late Kerry Packer became something of a hero for tax avoiders in this country with his voluble position on this at a televised senate enquiry. In reality these people are selfish scumbags that the nation would be better off without.
The Australian Taxation Loopholes
Australia has a tax problem on a number of fronts. Income tax in this country has to bear the brunt of raising tax revenue for government services like Medicare, education and the military. Wealth is not taxed properly downunder. Rich folk set up family trusts and other schemes to avoid paying their fair share of tax. Things like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount have no limits on them, which makes them ripe for exploitation by the very wealthy. These things need to be amended to stop the rorting by the rich. Housing has become an overly inflated investment vehicle, which is making basic shelter for all Australians way too expensive. Life is not OK for many Aussies in 2025/26.
Multinational Corporation Tax Avoidance
The digital age has seen giant American multinationals reap all the marketing billions from Australian businesses and yet pay bugger all tax. These clever c**** shift their profits from Australia via creative accounting to tax shelters in Ireland and the Virgin Islands. Google (Alphabet) wrote up some $6 billion in fake IP costs on their corporate tax return to avoid paying tax in Australia on that. Apple, Amazon, Meta, Uber, Pepsi, Microsoft, Starlink, News Corp and the rest all do it. We are being robbed blind by these multinational companies.
“The new laws will basically out the multinational corporations that fail to meet their corporate tax obligations by shifting profits to once notorious tax haven jurisdictions. In 2022, it was estimated that globally multinationals shifted $US1 trillion into tax havens, equivalent to over one-third of all profits booked outside headquarters countries.
Business lobbies had been fighting the tax transparency laws, and managed to delay their introduction in 2023, arguing it goes far beyond tax transparency disclosures offered in other jurisdictions including the European Union.”
Stop Buying American!
We, as a nation and as a people, need to stop buying American. Let us take a leaf out of the Canadian playbook. Rethink your spend with these digital platforms. Let us develop our own digital services to fulfill requirements rather than enriching these tax avoiders. Smarten up Australia! Trump is an arsehole, a king size one. The US is doing no favours for anyone and never has been in reality. Australia has a tax problem, so, let us stop giving our wealth away to scumbags and filthy rich companies who will not pay their fair share of tax downunder.
“Paul Keating tells us that Australia is on its way to becoming the unofficial 51st state of America. The former PM is not being complimentary in his assessment of our current defence policies when saying this. No, Keating is issuing a warning about our docile behaviour in this space. The truth is that Australia does follow the United States in many ways when it comes to economic and political trends. Especially, those on the conservative side of politics are constantly looking to take our country down well-trodden American roads. Financialization and zombie neoliberalism is where the US finds itself with private equity investment firms gobbling up all areas of life and business in America.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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