Australia’s tax collection system in grave need of reform

Australia’s tax collection system is in grave need of reform. Picture: Supplied

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As many of you will know, I have been put out of full action for some time as a result of an accident.

On Tuesday morning, I saw my first news in just over a week – which is a unique event for me. On Monday night in my hospital bed, A Current Affair came on air, and I was struck by just how little had changed in our tax collection system over the past decade or so.

The nation has returned to what is probably best described as the pre-Boyle era of bad tax collection methods. As my readers will remember, this debate is not about tax rates, and there are many wonderful people in the Australian Taxation Office, but there are bad apples our politicians are not willing to control.

Most readers will remember the truths revealed by whistleblower Richard Boyle and the impact that had on tax collection methods.

Richard Boyle with his partner outside court. Picture: Lucy Rutherford

Before the Boyle whistleblowing, the bad tax collectors were having a ball. It was highlighted by the gold GST affair, in which a number of criminals ripped huge sums out of tax revenue, diverting much of it to the Middle East.

To cover up its terrible blunder, the tax office devised a series of factious tax assessments against honest gold refiners, sending many of them to the wall. But one survived and managed to show just how fictitious the tax assessments were in the court system, all the way up to the High Court.

Then came Boyle, who told the nation of how such practices were superimposed on ordinary people. His revelations were checked and found to be true. The Boyle whistleblowing had a major effect on tax collection methods. But Boyle had to be punished for telling the truth, and a vast array of charges were put against him, some of which were linked to how the information was obtained, and there have been some guilty pleas in that area.

Leaving aside the legalities, Boyle did the nation a wonderful favour. The penalties involved in the Coalition’s actions against Boyle were equal to the term of his natural life. The ALP was a bit kinder and cut back the total of the penalties by 10 to 20 years. Boyle’s life has been ruined, and it will be a long time before any whistleblower tells the truth about the methods adopted by some people in the ATO. And those people are now having a ball, as A Current Affair indicates.

There was a parliamentary inquiry that made a series of recommendations to make tax collection in Australia fair. It was pigeonholed.

Once again, the tax collectors have told politicians that if they are not allowed to be ruthless and unfair and use their incredible powers, it would affect revenue.

The politicians in today’s world need the money. Sadly, in the last election, the Coalition did not take up the recommendations of the parliamentary committee headed by Julie Owens and Jason Falinski.

One day there will be a government that believes the integrity of the Australian taxation system is actually more important than the final amount of dollars collected. And maybe the blatant return to pre-Boyle activities in the tax office will underline to the government and the opposition that whistleblowers have a terribly important role in a democracy.