Moving personal tax online: the Australian Taxation Office's E-Tax initiative

In exploiting the capabilities of online technologies, governments have developed policies and launched projects to conduct transactions and deliver their services through the Internet. The motivations for this include cost cutting, efficiency improvements, service enhancements, and leadership in business transformation. However, these diverse goals are not necessarily consistent, especially in the early stages of implementation. The e-government initiative discussed in this case study (E-Tax) provided an additional service to individual Australian taxpayers by enabling them to file their tax returns online. This case study provides an analysis of the E-Tax implementation in the first three years of its operation. Data on E-Tax use compared to other filing methods show that the package worked well technically, was favorably received by users, and was consistent with policy on e-government. However, adoption levels in the early stages did not meet government targets. The analysis suggests that impediments to a greater level of E-Tax use included entrenched patterns of filing, the nature of the taxation system, and political sensitivities. The E-Tax case demonstrates how complex e-government projects can be and the need to take contextual factors into account in planning and evaluating e-government implementation.

Tourism, congestion, taxation, and strategic interaction

This paper examines the strategic interaction between firms and governments in two Small Island Tourism Economies (SITEs). In a situation where congestion can threaten the viability of tourism industries in SITEs, we highlight the role of two factors that determine the distribution of tourists across SITEs: whether the tourism market is vertically or horizontally differentiated, and the extent to which tourists care about congestion. Under these circumstances, counterintuitive results are possible: congestion in a SITE may rise in response to tourists caring more about congestion in the SITE. Moreover, maximising tourism tax revenue emerges as a dominant strategy for governments.

Isn't sport taxing? The taxation of sports professionals post-Agassi

In Agassi v Robinson (Her Majestyʹs Inspector of Taxes), a majority of the House of Lords found that payments under two sponsorship contracts between a company owned and controlled by Mr Andre Agassi, (Agassi Enterprises Inc) and Nike Inc and Head Sport AG were assessable under UK tax law. This was so despite (i) none of the parties to the contracts was resident, nor domiciled, in the United Kingdom and (ii) none of the payer companies conducted business, directly or indirectly, through branches/agencies in the United Kingdom. The article considers whether the Australian Taxation Office could similarly assess non‐resident sports‐persons, like Mr Agassi, personally, and/or entities they control, on payments made under sponsorship agreements with a company such as Nike Inc. While the preferable view is that such payments are not sourced in Australia, Australian source rules are so ill defined that there is some basis for asserting such payments are sourced in Australia.

Taxation threat, motivational postures, and responsive regulation

The central proposition of motivational posturing theory is that regulatees place social distance between themselves and authority, communicating the nature of that distance through a narrative that protects the self from negative appraisal by the authority. One of the key components of posturing is the coping sensibility that individuals adopt to manage the threat of authority. At a baseline level, authorities make demands on citizens and as such threaten individual freedom. At the highest level, authorities threaten through punishment for non-compliance. Data collected from 3,253 randomly selected Australian taxpayers and a special group of 2,292 taxpayers in conflict with the tax authority are used to show that in both groups, three coping sensibilities contribute to posturing ("thinking morally,""feeling oppressed," and "taking control"), and that all three sensibilities are significantly heightened in the group experiencing conflict with the authority. The article argues that the most effective regulatory outcome is achieved when the regulatory process can dampen the "taking control" and "feeling oppressed" sensibilities, and strengthen the "thinking morally" sensibility. Responsive regulation is an approach that encourages tax authorities to read motivational postures, understand the sensibilities that shape them, and tailor a regulatory intervention accordingly.

Income taxation commentary and materials

The formula of this established text remains the same in this new edition. The last section (entities and international) has been expanded along the lines of the first and second editions with discrete chapters to replace the amalgamated chapters for 'international' and 'entities'.

Stop taxing happiness : a new perspective on progressive taxation

The development of taxation law and policy has been driven largely by economic considerations and economic theory. Underlying this is the assumption that money is important to human well-being and is in fact the most important thing in this regard. Recent empirical studies of human well-being disprove this assumption. Money has only a limited bearing on happiness. It follows that economic arguments that have long shaped taxation law and policy should be discarded in preference for recent learning concerning what really matters to people. The results of the recent studies have significant implications for the manner in which we should raise tax. We argue that for income under approximately $20,000 the rate should be 0 to 5 per cent. For income between $20,000 to $50,000 the rate should be about 15 per cent. Incomes beyond this level should taxed at approximately 75 per cent. There is no reason to have further rate differentials.