Government agency deliberately broke law / The Trump Administration Is Publishing a Stream of Nazi Propaganda

Services Australia has known it was not fully complying with child support laws for six years, according to a scathing report released by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. 

Legislative amendments introduced in 2008 and 2018 created "unintended consequences" in which some parents with less than 35 per cent care of a child were technically eligible for child support, despite a longstanding government policy that this is not the case. 

What's next?

A government spokesperson said legislation to rectify the "technical legal anomaly" would be introduced when parliament next sits in February. 

Government agency deliberately broke law for years, federal watchdog finds

Administration of the Age Pension

$5b in incorrect age pension payments revealed as seniors left waiting

All the public servants who played top roles over summer

The Australian Taxation Office had a lot of changes over Christmas. Jeremy Hirschhorn acted as commissioner of taxation for almost a month, from December 29 to January 26.

Emma Rosenzweig acted as a second commissioner for most of that time, with Fiona Dillon also filling in for 10 days. Elissa Walker is in the chief information officer role from mid-January until February 6, and Brad Chapman is chief operating officer for about a week.

A liberal in illiberal times Reflections on a decade that was less traumatic than it promised to be

The Trump Administration Is Publishing a Stream of Nazi Propaganda

Government social-media managers have transformed official feeds

 How “Bitcoin Jesus” Avoided Prison, Thanks to One of the “Friends of Trump” ProPublica

ICE War on Rights and Safety Continues With Policy of Illegal, Fourth Amendment-Violating Home Break-Ins, Detainee Homicide, and Detention and Transport of Children

ICE lawlessness is only getting worse.

What midterm projections tell us about Trump’s central struggle Ipsos

Trump threatens 100 percent tariff on Canada over China deal Al Jazeera

Europe Rides the Tiger: Jeffrey Sachs on NATO, Trump, and the Collapse of the “Rules‑Based Order ScheerPost

New York convict at large after slipping his ankle monitor onto a dog

As the world finally punches back, was this the week Donald Trump went too far? The Guardian

Brockman Civil Case with Civil Fraud Penalties Settled 

I have written before on the Brockman multi-year tax evasion scheme. See here. Brockman was indicted but, before he could be tried, he died, thereby resolving the criminal case without a verdict of guilty or not guilty.

The civil case was settled with entry of the Tax Court decision in Brockman Estate v. Commissioner(T.C. Case No. 764-22 Dkt. # 33 Order Dtd. 12/23/25), here. The decision document addresses the deficiencies and civil fraud penalties under § 6663. As is the nature of decision documents, the decision document does not address the interest on the tax and the penalties. The principal amounts of deficiencies and penalty are major, aggregating $750 MM; the interest which I roughly calculate to 12/24/25 at $782MM brings the total due to over $1.5 billion. I prepared a spreadsheet which I offer for review and download here. (Note that the interest calculations are rough and ready but should be in the ballpark.)

One small error in the Tax Court decision document is that the 2006 civil fraud penalty (§ 6663) is stated as $35,00,000.00 which I infer to be $35,000,000.00.

Bluesky Brain, X Brain: Two Viral Stories From Minnesota Racket News

 ‘Side by Side’ Global Tax Deal Tests Pillar Two’s Staying Power

Dangerous love affair with personal income tax will leave us poorer

Revenue from individuals forms our biggest tax base, but there are risks if we overload it. It’s time for a national conversation about comprehensive tax reform.

Melissa Bray Economist

Jan 27, 2026 

Personal income tax is the single largest revenue source for the Australian government, and since the 1970s, it’s been responsible for about half the government’s tax revenue. In its medium-term budget outlook released last year, the independent Parliamentary Budget Office said it expects this proportion to increase from 48 per cent of total revenue this financial year to 53 per cent in 2035-36.

Australia is more reliant on personal income tax than other OECD countries. In fact, the OECD’s 2025 revenue statistics show us occupying second position for the proportion of revenue we receive from personal income tax, behind Denmark.

When people’s income increases through wage inflation, they can be pushed onto higher tax rates, resulting in bracket-creep. 

Is this becoming a problem? Yes, it is. Inflation is pushing individuals into higher tax brackets. And complexities in the system mean people’s decisions are being distorted. It would be terrible to get into a situation as we have with tobacco excise, where applying tax at a higher rate to a smaller group of taxpayers has led to a significant increase in illegal behaviour as well as a significant reduction in the revenue being collected.

In theory, taxes aim to raise revenue in the most efficient, equitable and simplest way possible. Economists favour taxes that apply to a broad base because you can raise the same revenue with a less distortionary effect. Narrow bases with high rates are more complex, and they provide opportunities for tax planning and income shifting.

While Australia’s personal income tax does have a broad base for labour income, it provides concessional treatment for most forms of savings (including superannuation) and business income (including CGT concessions for small business). These differences can operate to provide incentives for people to structure their affairs to minimise tax.

In addition, interactions between the personal income tax and means-tested transfer payments like JobKeeper and Austudy can lead to extra money that is earned being lost due to both higher taxes and reduced government benefits. The result of these interactions is known as high effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs), and they provide a disincentive to work, particularly for lower-income earners.

Offsets, including the low-income tax offset (or LITO) and levies like the Medicare levy, also work to obscure the true tax rates faced by individuals and add to the complexity of the tax system. LITO effectively increases the tax-free threshold and EMTRs; and the Medicare levy generally adds 2 percentage points to individuals’ marginal income tax rates.

“Historically, governments have provided tax cuts to return a proportion of this bracket creep. While this is generally popular with the electorate, this is not real tax reform.”

A concern voiced by some individuals is that broad-based low-rate taxes are regressive. However, we achieve progressivity not just through the tax system but also through the transfer system.

On the tax side, personal income tax is applied on a progressive rate scale, so the more you earn, the higher the rate of tax you pay.

The tax-free threshold is currently set at $18,200, below which no tax is payable. Above the threshold, 16¢ in tax applies for each $1, and then there are increasing tax rates at subsequent thresholds until at $190,000, 45¢ is payable for each dollar earned over that. On July 1 this year, that 16¢ rate will drop to 15¢ and then to 14¢ from July 1, 2027.

The dollar thresholds are not indexed though, so when people’s income increases through wage-inflation, they can be pushed onto higher tax rates, resulting in bracket-creep. This has the effect of reducing the progressivity of the tax over time, as well as discouraging participation and encouraging planning to minimise tax.

Historically, governments have provided tax cuts to return a proportion of this bracket creep. While this is generally popular with the electorate, this is not real tax reform.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has flagged continued reliance on personal income tax as a structural risk to the budget. Despite the tax cuts that were announced in last year’s budget, it says, “there is a continued risk of increased dependence on personal income tax driving the intergenerational challenge as well as raising issues around equity and efficiency of the tax-base more broadly”.

The OECD’s economic survey of Australia, released on Thursday, recommended indexing the thresholds.

In his book on the mixed fortunes of tax reform in Australia, Paul Tilley has highlighted another issue. The demographic pressures of our ageing population and the tax concessions associated with retirement incomes mean that, in future, personal income tax will apply to a shrinking proportion of the working-age population.

It’s now been 16 years since Australia’s last comprehensive tax review was released. The Henry review suggested that to ensure sustainability, personal income tax needs to be perceived by the community to be fair. Its recommendations included: a higher tax-free threshold; a constant marginal rate for most people; exempting income support and supplementary payments; largely incorporating (i.e. scrapping) the Medicare levy and structural offsets, including LITO; and providing a standard deduction for work-related expenses.

Deloitte Access Economics has recently modelled its proposal to index thresholds at 2.5 per cent per year, increase the tax-free threshold to $33,000 and then have a single marginal tax rate of 33 per cent applying to income between $33,000 and $330,000 and a rate of 45 per cent above that. They flag how this would significantly simplify the system, but come at a cost to the budget of $54 billion per year after 10 years.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has developed a Build Your Own Budget tool that lets anyone test a range of economic scenarios and policy changes (it’s a great tool for tax, policy and budget nerds). It shows the cost of just indexing the thresholds at CPI coming in at about $29 billion over the forward estimates period.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has also released a paper on Australia’s tax mix that considers scenarios that would raise the same amount of revenue. One of them involves shifting the tax mix from income tax to consumption tax. They highlight how decreasing personal income tax and increasing the GST – which is a more efficient and less distortionary tax – would increase economic efficiency, decrease average complexity in the tax system and make it more responsive to economic shocks.

Personal income tax is our biggest tax base, but there are risks if we overload it. It’s time we had a national conversation about comprehensive tax reform, including how it interacts with the transfer system.

Emergent Ventures winners, 51st cohort

 

Emergent Ventures winners, 51st cohort

by  Tyler Cowen

Joseph Schmid, Princeton philosophy, and co-authors. To write up new and better arguments for the existence of god.

Monica Lewis, Sydney, Australia, center-right podcast.

Ashwin Somu, 17, Ontario, payments systems.

Sam Kahn, Kyrgyzstan, digital publication, Republic of Letters.

Nelson Jing, Seattle, decentralized AI systems.

Anubhav Nigam, Cornell, underwater charging stations.

Jordan McGillis, San Diego, the economics and politics of Alaska.

Juan Navarette, Madrid, Cervantes and liberalism.

Jeff Stine, Chicago, matching scientists and donors.

Syrine Ben Driss, San Francisco/Tunisia, biology start-up for AI-powered bio.

Shakti Mb, NYC, how people use AI boyfriends and girlfriends.

Sonia Litwin, London, robotics and emotions.

Alby Churven, 14, Sydney, Clovr, an AI tool.

Mikhail Khotyakov and Igor Kogan, Munich, Aimathic, personal math tutoring.

Archaeology cohort, sponsored by Yonatan Ben Shimon.

Bryce Hoenigman,  Chicago, archaeology, linguistics, and AI.

Benjamin Arbuckle, Chapel Hill, archaeology and ancient DNA.

What Davos 2026 Can Tell Us About the World That Is Coming

Freedom is not free. We have to work at it. Nurture it. Protect it. Even sacrifice for it.

 

When you want to make an impression and you think you’ve gone far enough, go a little further. Always leave them wondering if you’re just a little bit crazy, and people will never fuck with you again.

~ Penelope Douglas, Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1)

‘No longer in my hands’: How Hill Republicans stopped caring about DOJ releasing the Epstein files Politico

What Davos 2026 Can Tell Us About the World That Is Coming

Davos 2026 points to a new world order—technocratic, executive and corporate—powered by AI and digital currencies

 AI to streamline ATO contact centre operations

More on the Goldstein Trial; Herein of Lying and Cheating, Good Guys and Bad Guys

I have written about the Tom Goldstein prosecution. Tom Goldstein--SCOTUSblog founder, Prominent Supreme Court Advocate, and High-Stakes Gambler--Indicted for Tax and Related Crimes and False Statements to Mortgage Lenders(Federal Tax Crimes Blog 1/17/25; 1/19/25), here;Two Recent Tax Crimes Cases Involving Bitcoin(Federal Tax Crimes Blog 1/19/25; 2/9/25), here;Free CourtListener Docket Sheet and Documents for Major Tax Crimes Case (Also Major White Collar Crimes Case) (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 7/3/25), here.

I offer a new article and some comments. The article is Holly Barker, Tom Goldstein’s Defense Hinges on Giving the Jury Good Guy Vibes(BloombergLaw 1/10/26), here. Key excerpts for purposes of this blog relate to the general tax crimes element of willfulness, which per Cheek is the voluntary intentional violation of a known legal duty.

          Tom Goldstein—the former US Supreme Court advocate and blogger with a years-long ultra-high-stakes gambling habit—heads to trial Monday in a case that may turn on whether the jury thinks he’s “a good guy or a bad guy.”

          That’s from Goldstein himself.

Top Cops: Camilla fires PwC after review finds it owes millions in taxes

Top cops raided over alleged links to Sydney brothel owner

The homes of some of NSW’s highest-ranking police officers have been searched by investigators from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.

Careers of top cops in jeopardy after brothel probe exposed

Camilla fires PwC after review finds it owes millions in taxes 

Carrie LaFrenz 

 Jan 26, 2026 

 Camilla, the luxury fashion label known for its colourful kaftans and bohemian prints, has been forced to pay millions of dollars in back taxes and penalties and restate its financial accounts after a review by Australian authorities and issues with sales duties in the United States.

Accounts filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in December, several months after they were due, show that the company paid back at least $5.4 million in taxes. The retailer, which is backed by the billionaire Forrest family’s private Tattarang investment vehicle, subsequently removed its long-time auditor PwC.

A Camilla store on Madison Ave in New York. The company has paid millions in back taxes in the US and Australia.  

Tattarang, which also owns the R.M.Williams boot brand and Akubra, purchased a 25 per cent stake in Camilla for about $40 million three years ago. Camilla Franks remains creative director and owns the balance of the label she founded more than two decades ago in Bondi Beach.

One person with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity given the sensitive nature of the topi,c said Camilla had not paid taxes on online sales – its largest channel – in various US states for years. These issues were detected at the same time as the Australian Taxation Office was conducting its own review, which found non-compliance in local payments.

A Camilla spokeswoman said the company had identified “certain legacy tax issues” from previous financial years “across its Australian and US operations”.

Camilla’s leadership team took immediate action and voluntarily disclosed the issues with the relevant tax authorities both locally and in the US, and have been working closely and collaboratively with these authorities on all tax matters,” she said. “Since uncovering these issues, Camilla’s focus has been on full compliance and cost remediation.”

According to its filings, Camilla removed its auditor, PwC, in July and replaced the firm with KPMG. Records show PwC was paid more than $327,000 for audit and tax services in the previous year. PwC declined to comment.

The ATO declined to comment.

The accounts show Camilla’s sales reached $138 million in the year to June 29, up from $135 million the prior period, while bottom-line profits withered to just $444,522 – a fraction of the $2.7 million reported the previous year.

Camilla paid a $2.67 million dividend, in line with the prior year. That was lower than in 2023, when the company paid $24.2 million in dividends.

Camilla, which operates 32 boutiques, mostly in Australia, has repaid or accrued all outstanding tax costs with interest and non-material penalties.

The brand now has the added headache of the collapse of a major American retailing partner, Saks Fifth Avenue, whose parent filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, leaving suppliers across the globe facing unpaid invoices. More broadly, it has been a difficult year for luxury fashion, with the resurgence of tariffs leading to higher costs at the same time as consumer sentiment turns, forcing retailers to increase discounting.

A Camilla spokeswoman said the company was confident of its outlook despite the accounting issues, adding that the business had grown revenues by 15 per cent in the US over the past financial year.

“We will remain focused on growth initiatives, the appropriate governance, and fiscal discipline required to future-proof the business long-term and continue bringing our unique products and experiences to customers all over the world,” she said.

“Camilla remains committed to its global growth strategy through a disciplined and conservative approach to expansion.

“We continue to expand our retail footprint in the US in key locations, with the next store opening in Hawaii later this year. We also launched a successful resort pop-up format in The Atlantis Royal, Dubai, in October 2025 and are exploring other locations for this format.

“In Australia, we continue to roll out our new boutique format, with Chadstone opening later this year.”

Find out the inside scoop about Accenture, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC and McKinsey. Sign up to our weekly Professional Life newsletter.

Carrie LaFrenz is a senior journalist covering retail/consumer goods. She previously covered healthcare/biotech. Carrie has won multiple awards for her journalism including financial journalist of the year from The National Press Club. Connect with Carrie on Twitter. Email Carrie at carrie.lafrenz@afr.com

 

Yes, It’s Fascism

Until recently, I thought it a term best avoided. But now, the resemblances are too many and too strong to deny.

By Jonathan Rauch

Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump. For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents. From the beginning, fascism has been an incoherent doctrine, and even today scholars can’t agree on its definition. Italy’s original version differed from Germany’s, which differed from Spain’s, which differed from Japan’s.

I accepted President Biden’s characterization of the MAGA movement as “semi-fascist” because some parallels were glaringly apparent. Trump was definitely an authoritarian, and unquestionably a patrimonialist. Beyond that, though, the best description seemed to be a psychological one propounded by John Bolton, Trump’s first-term national security adviser: “He listens to Putin, he listens to Xi, he listens to how they talk about governing unburdened by uncooperative legislatures, unconcerned with what the judiciary may do, and he thinks to himself, Why can’t I do that? This doesn’t amount to being a fascist, in my view, [or] having a theory of how you want to govern. It’s just Why can’t I have the same fun they have?”

Writing a year ago, I argued that Trump’s governing regime is a version of patrimonialism, in which the state is treated as the personal property and family business of the leader. That is still true. But, as I also noted then, patrimonialism is a style of governing, not a formal ideology or system. It can be layered atop all kinds of organizational structures, including not just national governments but also urban political machines such as Tammany Hall, criminal gangs such as the Mafia, and even religious cults. Because its only firm principle is personal loyalty to the boss, it has no specific agenda. Fascism, in contrast, is ideological, aggressive, and, at least in its early stages, revolutionary. It seeks to dominate politics, to crush resistance, and to rewrite the social contract.

Over Trump’s past year, what originally looked like an effort to make the government his personal plaything has drifted distinctly toward doctrinal and operational fascism. Trump’s appetite for lebensraum, his claim of unlimited power, his support for the global far right, his politicization of the justice system, his deployment of performative brutality, his ostentatious violation of rights, his creation of a national paramilitary police—all of those developments bespeak something more purposeful and sinister than run-of-the-mill greed or gangsterism.

When the facts change, I change my mind. Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. Fascistbest describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse. That is not because of any one or two things he and his administration have done but because of the totality. Fascism is not a territory with clearly marked boundaries but a constellation of characteristics. When you view the stars together, the constellation plainly appears.

Demolition of norms. From the beginning of his first presidential run in 2015, Trump deliberately crashed through every boundary of civility; he mocked Senator John McCain’s war heroism, mocked fellow candidate Carly Fiorina’s face, seemingly mockedthe Fox News host Megyn Kelly’s menstruation, slurred immigrants, and much more. Today he still does it, recently making an obscene gesture to a factory worker and calling a journalist “piggy.” This is a feature of the fascist governing style, not a bug. Fascists know that what the American Founders called the “republican virtues” impede their political agenda, and so they gleefully trash liberal pieties such as reason and reasonableness, civility and civic spirit, toleration and forbearance. By mocking decency and saying the unsayable, they open the way for what William Galston has called the “dark passions” of fear, resentment, and especially domination—the kind of politics that shifts the public discourse to ground on which liberals cannot compete…

Australia Day - Doctrine for Middle Powers

Australia Day 2026 Honours: Complete list of recipients

Hundreds recognised in Australia Day Honours list

* Mathias Cormann (AC) - former politician and current Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

In the nasty, complex business of reporting international money-laundering, courage is perhaps the most important quality…

 Carney Doctrine for Middle Powers - Next century

There will be more twists and turns, highs and lows, but I’m afraid it’s time to recognize a sad reality: It’s over. This week, two things happened that, taken together, send a clear signal to the United States and the world:

Record-breaking solar storm delivers spectacular auroras across Australia

Experts say it is rare for southern lights to be visible from so many regions of Australia at the same time

How Will the Miracle Happen Today?“Kindness is like a breath. It can be squeezed out, or drawn in. You can wait for it, or you can summon it. To solicit a gift from a stranger takes a certain state of openness.”

As Greenland crisis escalates, US, UK and Danish spy chiefs gather in Davos Intelligence Online

 

Trump says US and NATO will come to an agreement on Greenland Reuters

 

Pentagon moves to cut U.S. participation in some NATO groups WaPo

 

Operation Northern Sentinel: A Hypothetical U.S. Invasion of Greenland Amid Escalating Tensions Frame The Globe News

 

Liberals Discover International Law Nate Bear