no taxation without obfuscation

Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Mon, 18 Jan 1999 12:29:47 +0000

For the amusement of those who find the US tax system labyrinthine and Wicked, here's something from Australia:

Excerpt from The Sun-Herald - January 17, 1999

"The tax raising legislation, already through the House of Representatives and now before the Senate, is engagingly called A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Bill 1998.

Section 165-55 sets out the bizarre powers of Tax Commissioner Michael Carmody in deciding whether certain tax schemes are taxable income or not.

The bill states: 'For the purposes of making a declaration under this sub-division, the commissioner may:

'(a) Treat a particular event that actually happened as not having
happened;
and

'(b) Treat a particular event that did not actually happen as having
happened; and

'(c) Treat a particular event that actually happened as:

(i) Having happened at a time different from the time it actually happened; or

(ii) Having involved particular action by a particular entity (whether or not the event actually involved any action by that entity.)' "

Damien Broderick