Historically, household consumption has been relatively stable as a proportion of GDP. For over 50 years, tax reform reviews in Australia have accepted that the revenue from a tax on consumption expenditure would grow in line with the broader economy. Consistent with that prevailing view, the 1998 ANTS White Paper proposed a value-added tax for Australia. The so-called goods and services tax (GST) commenced on 1 July 2000. The objectives of GST set out in the ANTS White Paper were:

• • a secure and growing source of revenue for the States an

A paper I presented at the Australian Tax Institute’s 2018 National GST Intensive on 13 September 2018 examines the following objectives of the ANTS White paper of August 1998:

In today’s Australian Finacial Review Neil Chenoweth discusses Aamazon’s decision to restrict access to its Australian website.

“Amazon last week announced that it was too onerous to calculate the 10 per cent GST due on sales to Australia from its US and European operations and therefore will stop all shipments to Australia from July 1, forcing Australians to buy from its smaller local arm. …

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An new issue of Thomson Reuters’ Australian GST journal was released this month – 16 AGSTJ 41.

This issue of the Australian GST Journal illustrates both the global and parochial characteristics of Australia’s GST. Its three articles are an infectious blend of policy and legislative design on the one hand and interpretation and administration on the other.

But all three are examples of how designing and administering GST is like home renovation – no matter how much ingenuity one exercises, the result is limited by the pre-existing structure and framework

An article presented at the Taxation Institute’s Charities Day on 8 April 2016. S4_Evans_Technical_Paper.original.1459835555

Today, 17 April 2016, is the 19th anniversary of the grant of the Royal Assent to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 .

The 1997 Act was part of the so-called Tax Law Improvement Project, a program announced by  Treasurer Dawkins on 17 December 1993 “to reduce the complexity of the income tax law by re-drafting it with a more coherent structure to make it more readily understood”.

The commentary at the time referred to the then 5000 pages of “difficult text” contained in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

In their 1994 artic

The number thirteen is “lucky for some”.  TEN’s 5th Annual GST Symposium is privileged to be able to bring thirteen outstanding GST presenters to explain the New Year’s important and contemporary GST issues.

The Symposium will be held on 11 and 12 February 2016 at the Sheraton Mirage Resort and Spa in the Gold Coast.

The topics and presenters are:

Supply for Consideration – Justice Jennifer Davies, Federal Court of Australia

The Tripartite Complication – Chris Sievers, Victorian Bar<