Tax Reforms Have Led The Australian Government To Produce A Monster

by Mary Swire, Tax-news.com, Hong Kong

21 June 2001

Australia's National Tax & Accountants' Association (NTAA) has launched an attack on the government over new tax documentation that the NTAA believes will cause more headaches for taxpayers 'than ever before.' Guidelines issued by the government, in the form of 'TaxPack 2001', comprise over 350 pages of instructions explaining the complexities around the government's latest round of tax reforms.

Ray Regan, NTAA president said: 'This year's TaxPack has clearly fallen victim to the Howard Government's failed tax reform changes, and it has now become more complex than it has ever been before. Therefore, it is inevitable that taxpayers preparing their own returns will more than likely make errors.'

Mr Regan explains that this is down to two issues. Firstly, a whole raft of new labels has been added to the 2001 individual tax return form this year making it 12 pages long. This is actually double the size of the 1996 individual return form (issued prior to the Howard administration coming into office), and that is not taking into account the Business and Professional Items Schedule!

Secondly, there are significant tax changes related to the 2001 individual return that will either require taxpayers to spend much more time preparing their own returns this year, or alternatively, individual taxpayers will incur considerably higher accounting fees from tax agents.

More information on the reforms can be found on the NTAA web site at: http://www.ntaa.com.au/

Recommended