AN EVALUATION OF THE PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE INDIVIDUAL TAX RESIDENCY RULES

ELIZABETH NG

Abstract

In the 2021-22 Federal Budget, the Government announced that the current individual tax residency rules will be replaced with new tests, which will be based on recommendations made by the Board of Taxation. The current residency rules are difficult to apply in practice. This is evidenced by the large number of cases and private binding rulings from 2016 to 2021 on the issue of residency, which indicate that taxpayers are seeking guidance from the Australian Taxation Office before turning to the courts to determine their residency status. The paper evaluates the extent to which the proposed residency tests are able to meet the policy objectives of equity, efficiency, and simplicity. The paper concludes that the proposed residency tests will meet the policy objectives to a large extent, and that the tests are a step in the right direction.

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Fairness in the Indian Tax System

S. A. MOHAN

Abstract

Fairness is the sine qua non of any administrative or judicial process. Interviews of retired tax officials, tax practitioners, and retired tax adjudicators reveal that fairness is not guaranteed to taxpayers in India during tax assessment and tax adjudication at the first level of appeal. Instead, there appear to be challenges to substantive justice in both cases and to procedural justice in the context of tax assessments. Case law substantiates the existence of unfairness in tax assessments, with judges in some cases making critical remarks about the unfair behaviour of tax officials. But reforms to address such unfairness are long overdue.

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Supporting Taxation’s extended ‘Purpose’ to encompass the Objective of Socially Engineering Human Behaviours

LIDIA XYNAS AND ALEXANDER XYNAS

Abstract

Taxation should not only be viewed as a legislative tool which provides revenues for policymakers to be able to then deliver social goods and services such as roads, health care, education and military protections. The fiscal raising aspect of taxation is also supplemented by another objective or purpose – the social engineering of human behaviours. This extended purpose of taxation can be supported by reference to three Pillars: Ethics, Law and Economics as bought together in this Article. This three Pillar approach can provide the basis for taxpayer confidence and acceptance of a policymaker’s approach to extending purpose of taxation to encompass objectives of socially engineering human behaviours. This is especially important where the positives of such a policy approach outweigh the harms associated with certain defined human behaviours, for the individual and for broader society.

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