" ... to date the Chevron case has been a farewell hurrah from the grave for [the now repealed] Div 13 . The decisions of the primary judge and the Full Court suggest that it will not pass into oblivion as a toothless tiger like its predecessor, s 136 , despite being bruised in the latter part of its statutory life. ... Only time will tell whether Div 13 is allowed to rest in peace, with the epitaph on its tombstone: "He who laughs last, laughs best" ."
[Mr Edmonds retired from the Federal Court in February 2016 and is now practising at the NSW Bar.]
Paradise papers: how Australia can halt unfair use of tax
havens
Gabriel Zucman, an economist at University of California, Berkley, estimates that about four-fifths of money in offshore bank accounts is there in breach of other countries' tax laws. Tax havens are used by drug-runners, extortionists and money-launderers. They are used to hide the proceeds of fraud, corruption and tax ...
Transparency International UK has analysed 52 cases of global corruption – amounting to £80 billion – and found hundreds of UK registered shell companies at the heart of these scandals. At the same time the UK’s system to prevent this abuse is failing. This new research, Hiding in Plain Sight, has found 766 companies registered in the UK that have been directly involved in laundering stolen money out of at least 13 countries. These companies are used as layers to hide money that would otherwise appear suspicious, and have the added advantage of providing a respectability uniquely associated with being registered in the UK. Our evidence has shown this is no accident. The UK is home to a network of Trust and Companies Service Providers (TCSP’s) that operate much like Appleby and Mossack Fonseca – companies at the heart of the Paradise and Panama Papers – who create these companies on behalf of their clients. TCSPs will register these companies to UK addresses, often nothing more than mailboxes
The European Union has created a game to teach kids (9-12), teenagers (13-17) and young adults about the tax system.
POLITICIANS and executives are held to different standards. That is pretty
clear when it comes to issues such as sexual harassment, notwithstanding the
resignation of Al Franken or the rejection by voters of Roy Moore. As others
have pointed out, the tweets and remarks of Donald Trump would have seen him
forced out of the leadership of an S&P 500 company long ago.
There are also big differences when it comes to the consequences of their regular actions. Politics is about making choices. Should public money be spent on defence or welfare benefits? Should taxes be cut for one type of voter and raised for another? The problem for politicians is that making those choices explicit may not be a vote-winning strategy. The losers will be more resentful than the winners will be grateful. So politicians get around this problem by making their promises very generic—tax cuts will go to hard-working families, public spending will be reduced through cutting waste and the like.
...When politicians and executives get caught out
Tax Games - the Race to the Bottom
The European Union has created a game to teach kids (9-12), teenagers (13-17) and young adults about the tax system.
POLITICIANS and executives are held to different standards. That is pretty
clear when it comes to issues such as sexual harassment, notwithstanding the
resignation of Al Franken or the rejection by voters of Roy Moore. As others
have pointed out, the tweets and remarks of Donald Trump would have seen him
forced out of the leadership of an S&P 500 company long ago.There are also big differences when it comes to the consequences of their regular actions. Politics is about making choices. Should public money be spent on defence or welfare benefits? Should taxes be cut for one type of voter and raised for another? The problem for politicians is that making those choices explicit may not be a vote-winning strategy. The losers will be more resentful than the winners will be grateful. So politicians get around this problem by making their promises very generic—tax cuts will go to hard-working families, public spending will be reduced through cutting waste and the like.
...When politicians and executives get caught out
National wastewater drug monitoring program: report 3, November 2017
Whistleblower compensation is sorely needed
SEC Issues $4.1 Million Award to Overseas Whistleblower
Karen Nelson-Field: My life as a whistleblowerAustralia: Strong whistleblower laws in the Asia Pacific region?
Tax Games - the Race to the Bottom
REALLY, MCCONNEL? The Taxman Cometh: Senate Bill’s Marginal Rates Could Top 100% for Some.
- A tax haven blacklist without the UK is a whitewash(8 Dec 2017)
- Jeremy Corbyn to take aim at tax avoidance in speech at UN (8 Dec 2017)
- MEPs try to add EU member states to the blacklist of tax havens (8 Dec 2017)
- Schulz: Ireland has enabled tax avoidance (8 Dec 2017)
ExxonMobil Australia 'failed to disclose links to Bahamas and Netherlands' (8 Dec 2017) - Big firms including News Corp, Exxon and Chevron paid no tax in 2016, Australia Tax Office says(8 Dec 2017)
- Cracking down on those facilitating tax evasion (8 Dec 2017)
- Bitcoin Swings and Tax Glitches (8 Dec 2017)
- Pope singles out Rome's decay, corruption on traditional feast day (8 Dec 2017)
- Vatican prosecutors urged to go after money laundering (8 Dec 2017)
- Australian tax office says 36% of big firms and multinationals paid no tax(8 Dec 2017)
- Why “death taxes” have fallen out of favour (8 Dec 2017)
- UK Professional bodies comment on HMRC draft guidance on penalties for enablers of tax avoidance schemes (8 Dec 2017)
- UK National risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist money laundering and terrorist financing 2017 (8 Dec 2017)
- Some of those accountants involved in money laundering cases are assessed to be complicit or wilfully blind to money laundering risks (8 Dec 2017)
- Money Laundering: Accountancy services have also been exploited to provide a veneer of legitimacy to falsified accounts or documents used to conceal the source of funds (8 Dec 2017)
- Money Laundering: The involvement of accountants in company formation and other company services, whether in the UK or overseas, is assessed to be the accountancy service at highest risk of exploitation (8 Dec 2017)
- Law enforcement agencies have observed misuse of accountants’ client accounts for money laundering. There is a risk posed by accountants performing high value financial transactions for clients with no clear business rationale to be involved, allowing criminals to transfer funds through bank accounts with little scrutiny as a means to complicate the audit trail (C
- Law enforcement agencies have observed accountants reviewing and signing off accounts for businesses engaged in criminality, thereby facilitating the laundering of the proceeds (8 Dec 2017)
- The accountant devised a scheme by which settlement of this debt could take place outside of the UK, thereby circumventing the UK tax system and payment to HMRC (8 Dec 2017)
- Hammond eyes tax boost for asset managers to ease Brexit fears (7 Dec 2017)
- Outbreak of 'so whatery' over EU tax haven blacklist (7 Dec 2017)
- Tax Games - the Race to the Bottom (7 Dec 2017)
- Apple's troublesome taxes (7 Dec 2017)
- Capitalism's Failure Of The Flesh: The Rise Of The Robots (7 Dec 2017)
- Delaware gives nonresident property owners the vote: Rehoboth proposal to let LLC owners vote creates stir (7 Dec 2017)
- Former Procurement Officer at Federally Funded Nuclear Research and Development Facility Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud & Money Laundering (7 Dec 2017)
- HM Treasury Paper: The UK Investment Management Strategy II (7 Dec 2017)
- Concerns raised on new 'eBay tax allowance' (7 Dec 2017)
- GOP Tax Plan “Riddled“ with Loopholes Just Begging to Be Exploited (7 Dec 2017)
- US tax reform will benefit shareholders more than workers (7 Dec 2017)
- EC closes taxation rules infringement case against Croatia (7 Dec 2017)
- General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAARs) – A Key Element of Tax Systems in the Post-BEPS Tax World? The UK GAAR (7 Dec 2017)
- Corporate Tax Payments and Corporate Social Responsibility: Complements or Substitutes? Empirical Evidence from Europe (7 Dec 2017)
- The EU claims it's getting tough on tax evasion – this couldn't be further from the truth