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1 July 2019 proved an historic day for US taxpayers when President Trump signed into law the Taxpayers First Act.

The Act is intended to bring discipline to the US tax agency (IRS) after years of strong evidence of both its administrative incompetence and systemic abuse of taxpayers, particularly small business people.  More...

Earlier this week we discussed the history of Uber in its global legal battles to have its drivers accepted as independent contractors. The Uber battle is at the forefront of the gig ‘question’.

Today we focus on the Australian Taxation Office and its incompetence (from our experience) in assessing employee vs independent contractor status. The ATO should learn from a significant Uber legal decision in Australia. It probably won’t though More...

Earlier this month the Fair Work Ombudsman released a statement that, after a two-year investigation, it has concluded that drivers working through Uber are not employees.

The Transport Workers Union described the decision as ‘…devastating for workers in the gig economy’. One academic said the decision was ‘very disappointing’.  More...

It probably had to happen at some stage! For all the criticism we direct at the ATO (all warranted) there had to come a time when we could direct some praise!

You’ll be aware of our intense campaigning against the ATO for bad treatment of small business people. We’ve now had a very good experience, however. More...

Last Saturday’s (18 May) surprise election outcome has triggered a tsunami of commentary about what went wrong for Shorten’s Labor and what went right for Morrison’s Coalition. The consensus opinion is that:  More...

We’re really worried about one aspect of a Shorten Labor government.

Bill Shorten plans to bring back trucking laws that will destroy the businesses of around 50,000 independent truck drivers across Australia. If they can attack the legitimate small businesses of one group of self-employed people, we have to ask, where will Labor stop?

Our use of the words ‘destroy businesses’ is not extreme. Under the now-repealed Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT), independent truck drivers’ businesses were wiped out. Several confirmed suicides occurred.  More...

You’ll be aware that our biggest campaigning push over the last two years has been for major reform to the ATO. Here’s the history of our battle.

We’ve congratulated both the Morrison Coalition and Shorten’s Labor for recognising that there are big problems with the ATO’s mistreatment of small business people. The evidence is overwhelming.

What’s been important is that both Morrison and Shorten have responded. More...

Our tax calculator released last week shows that if you earn more than $38,000 a year you will normally pay more tax under a Shorten Labor government than under a Morrison Coalition government. We can praise Bill Shorten for being totally honest that a government he leads will be a high-taxing government.

Today we compare Labor’s small business tax policies with those of the Coalition and discuss them. Overall, small business people will pay more tax under Labor than the Coalition. More...

Labor leader Bill Shorten has been totally honest that, under a government he leads, taxes will be higher than under a Morrison Coalition government. Praise is due for the honesty.

What is unclear, however, is who will pay the higher taxes and how much. That is, who of us will pay more tax under a Shorten Labor government and how much will we pay?

We’ve put together a calculator that gives a guiding answer to that question. It’s a pretty good guide we think. You can go to the calculator here.  More...

It doesn’t seem to stop. The ATO continues to deny that it does anything wrong, but official reviews and reports keep slamming the ATO. We listed in early April this year the string of parliamentary and other reports calling for urgent reform of the ATO.

This time it’s the Small Business Ombudsman reporting on the ATO’s enforcing debt even while the debt is being challenged in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The report finds that the ATO does this on 12 per cent of occasions. This destroys the small business and their ability to challenge the alleged debt. The Ombudsman severely criticizes the ATO and calls for legislative reform.  More...