General Editor’s introduction

Abstract

When it comes to tax avoidance, some things never change and solutions are hard to find. On the one hand, the cash economy appears to be alive and well with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently reporting that almost 2500 businesses in Geelong and 700 businesses in Wagga Wagga may be deliberately concealing income to evade tax and obtain an unfair advantage over their competitors. The ATO Senior Assistant Commissioner Michael Hardy said businesses in the building and construction industry, restaurant and cafés, hairdressers and beauticians are more likely to be involved. On the other hand, at the big end of town in an internet world, profit shifting has taken on a new dimension. As Commissioner Jordan noted this month, “multinationals operate seamlessly across borders and take a global, top-down view to structure their operations across countries for maximum economic advantage”.1 The Commissioner has “stepped up our efforts to ensure that multinationals pay tax in Australia on the income they earn here. Working with the G20, OECD and other partner tax administrations, we have been mapping the global operations of some multinationals that operate in the digital economy”.