En Passant

If Malcolm Turnbull’s outrage at the suggestion that he will benefit from his own tax cuts is justified, he can just release his tax returns so we can judge, writes former assistant tax commissioner, John Passant, in Independent Australia.

Conversation With A Tax Collector About Poetry – Vladimir Mayakovsky [1926]

This is a link to the just published volume 18 of the Journal of Australian Taxation.  John McLaren and I took over the editorship in mid January this year.

In Independent Australia I explore the idea of legalising marijuana for personal and medicinal use to raise revenue in the ACT.

To read the article click here. Is it time for the ACT to do a Colorado and introduce marijuana taxes?

Corporate tax avoidance cost us $4 billion in the last financial year — a small “democracy levy” on big business could help balance the scales, says John Passant in Independent Australia. To read the whole article click on my blog link to click through to the article in Independent Australia.

As a former Assistant Commissioner of Taxation it seems clear to me that the current Commissioner of Taxation has failed in his duty to protect ordinary workers. I call on him, and the gaggle of executives he has gathered around him who are currently destroying the ATO, to resign immediately.

Turnbull’s claim that rehashed “trickle down reforms” will not be “keenly felt” in the community during the lowest wage growth on record are farcical, says John Passant in Independent Australia. Click here to read the article. Turnbull talks tax trash

I submitted this back in May to the Canberra Times after I had spoken at the National Law Reform Conference at the ANU on a whole range of national and local progressive tax reforms. They did not publish it. In light of the Australian Capital Territory election on Saturday, I thought I would publish it today to stimulate some sort of discussion about tax reform in the A.C.T.

My latest academic article has just been published and is available through this link to download.

Tax and the Forgotten Classes: from the Magna Carta to the English Revolution

On Monday in Independent Australia I analyse the complex machinations behind Apple’s tax avoidance process and how this affects Australia, where Apple’s tax contribution is about one per cent. To read the article click here to go through my blog to the site.