You cannot tax what you cannot see ...Strangers and Digital Natives

A Senate committee probing tax avoidance has junked a recommendation that would have limited multinational companies' ability to use interest deductions to reduce their tax bills in Australia. A widely-anticipated and leaked interim report by the Senate standing committee on economics, headed by Labor's Senator Sam Dastyari, was tabled on Tuesday.

The report makes 17 recommendations designed to give the public more information about the tax affairs of multinational giants.... Key Proposals

Whistleblowers who expose corporate tax dodgers should be paid bounties based on a percentage of how much money is recouped by authorities ...
Sunlight is Best Disinfectant  via Mark Zirnsak

The Senate Inquiry into Corporate Tax avoidance was referred to the Economics References Committee on Thursday 2 October 2014. It was prompted by the publication a week earlier of the Tax Justice Network Australia (TJN) and United Voice report,Who Pays for Our Common Wealth: the Tax practices of the ASX 200, on Friday 29 September 2014. Corporate Tax Avoidance Report Part 1

A personal email from Australian Taxation Office assistant deputy commissioner Michael O'Neill convinced a Sydney estate agent that  a government crackdown on foreign buyers was not in fact "a farce", as he had previously believed. Mr Robert Simeon, director at estate agents Richardson & Wrench in Mosman on Sydney's lower north shore last week described Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey's announcement of 6 divestment orders against foreign homeowners and 462 property investigations as  "nothing more than a PR stunt". In comments to The Australian Financial Review he claimed there were tens of thousands of illegal purchases. But on Friday he said he was "left eating humble pie" following the surprise email and later phone call from Mr O'Neill, who heads up serious non-compliance at the ATO Taskforce on unlawful foreign buyers

The Tax Office asked its staff how they use technology in their work — and were surprised at some of the preferences of digital natives. This shows the importance of asking, not assuming, argues ATO deputy commissioner Jacqueline Curtis Mobile Devices

An economy must provide the possibility of a good life -- a life in which creativity and imagination can flourish. It no longer does so in the West ...

The Internal Revenue Service said Monday that more than twice as many taxpayer accounts were hit by identity thieves than the agency first reported, with hackers gaining access to as many as 330,000 accounts and attempting to break into an additional 280,000. IRS says cyberattacks more extensive than previously reported

Governments do not need the savings of the rich, nor their taxes! Bill Mitchell (Brant). Goes well beyond “fiat currency issuers can never go bankrupt” arguments.

• Revenue can check credit card spending to catch tax evasion