Category: Volume 15 Issue 2

Constitutional specialists and political economy scholars commonly believe (wrongly) that federalism is a matter of constitutional divisions of powers and responsibilities and the political and legal processes of reconciling overlaps and lacunae arising from those divisions. Political realists know it’s all about the money – specifically which level of government gets to tax what. The constitution may give lower tier governments responsibilities for constructing highways, establishing universities, building hospitals, regulating superannuation systems and funding schools and disability programs. The true power, however, lies with the government that has the cash.

A nation’s thin capitalisation laws are an important instrument for preventing revenue loss resulting from excessive allocation of debt to resident operations. These laws can also act as a tool for regulating the structures and processes of entities within a nation’s borders. The principal purpose of this paper is to establish the merits of Australia’s thin capitalisation laws based on three criteria: the extent to which they comply with OECD guidelines; the extent to which they reflect the policy behind their enactment; and their strength relative to the thin capitalisation regimes of fellow OECD member countries. The paper will also provide comment on the recent proposals to reform the thin capitalisation regime following the 2013-14 Federal budget release.

This paper investigates the outsourcing of income tax return preparation by Australian accounting firms. It identifies the extent to which firms are currently outsourcing accounting services or considering outsourcing accounting services, with a focus on personal and business income tax return preparation. The motivations and barriers for outsourcing by Australian accounting firms are also considered in this paper. Privacy, security of client data, and the competence of the outsourcing provider’s staff have been identified as risks associated with outsourcing. An expectation relating to confidentiality of client data is also examined in this paper. Statistical analysis of data collected from a random sample of Australian accounting firms using a survey questionnaire provided the empirical data for the paper. The results indicate that the majority of Australian accounting firms are either currently outsourcing or considering outsourcing accounting services, and firms are outsourcing taxation preparation both onshore and offshore. The results also indicate that firms expect the volume of outsourced work to increase in the future. In contrast to the literature identifying labour arbitrage as the primary driver for organisations choosing to outsource, this study found that the main factors considered by accounting firms in the decision to outsource were to expedite delivery of services to clients and to enable the firm to focus on core competencies. Data from this study also supports the literature which indicates that not all tax practitioners are adhering to codes of conduct in relation to client confidentiality. Research identifying the extent to which accounting services are outsourced is limited, therefore significant contributions to the academic literature and the accounting profession are provided by this study.