En Passant

If I were Bill Shorten I’d release my tax returns for the last few years and call on Turnbull to do the same.

We could tax the rich to fund better services. None of the parties of neoliberalism – the Liberals and Nationals and the Labor Party – are going to really do that. At best they will offer mickey mouse changes as part of a smokescreen to give the impression of doing something without actually doing anything major to upset the rich and powerful, the capitalists, whose system drives them to avoid tax and hide their affairs in secrecy jurisdictions.

Now I know none of this tax the rich stuff will in reality get on the agenda willingly of the Labor Party. The answer is that when the current or future governments attack funding for workers or the poor, attack public schools, public hospitals and public universities, the fightback against those attacks has the potential, among other potentialities, to challenge the ruling class and its systemic tax avoidance and secrecy. To tax the rich build the fight against austerity.

The outcome of neoliberal policy since 1983, when Hawke Labor began implementing it and laid out the red carpet for Howard and then Abbott, has been a massive shift in wealth in Australia from labour to capital. The process of neoliberal regulatory capture in tax policy and tax law has now, if Second Commissioner Mills’ speech is any indication, also successfully infected the administration of the Australian Tax Office. All the sweet words in the world will not disguise the fact that the fox is now in charge of the revenue hen house.

The one percent has captured not only Parliament and tax policy but tax administration now too. If that is true, the conclusion we might then reach is that the slaughter of Tax Office jobs currently under way is actually an attempt to administratively reduce taxes on capital by weakening the capacity of the ATO to tax the rich and powerful. Certainly that fits in neatly with the neoliberal cut taxes mantra of most politicians and the Treasury.

Over to you Commissioner of Taxation.

Why is there no royal commission into corrupt business people and their companies cheating on their tax? Could it be because they are rich and powerful?

This may be the logic. Trickle down will increase revenue. The less tax we collect today from companies will magically produce more economic activity in the future. So having people in charge of the Australian Tax Office who ‘understand’ business and the realities they face is just what capital needs. To business, tax is just another cost and the lower the costs the higher the profit and the better off all of us will be

I believe in Santa Claus too.

So here we have a Government and Opposition intending to attack the poor and ordinary workers to save a few billion when a few simple tax measures – like taxing the family homes of the rich, and abolishing the superannuation tax lurks for the millionaires, and getting rid of the tax concessions for capital gains – would raise tens of billions.

Cases involving tax assessments and the interest and penalties associated with them are civil cases. This means the burden of proof is the balance of probabilities – that is above 50 percent. In fact, under tax law, once the ATO raises an issue that is defensible the onus falls on the taxpayer to make their case. 51 percent certainty is a lot easier to establish, especially in the context of the onus of proof being on the taxpayer, than beyond reasonable doubt in criminal cases, that is, something approaching 98 or 99 percent certainty.

Despite the dropping of the Paul Hogan criminal investigation, the Wickenby criminal and/or tax noose is tightening around a number of other players.

The difficulties in gathering information and continuing prosecutions that the ACC identified justify more Wickenby powers, not less, and more Wickenby resources, not less, to combat international tax evasion and avoidance.