Year: 2002
Type: report
Abstract: During the 1990s, Australian taxpayers who invested in mass marketed tax schemes \nenjoyed generous tax breaks until the Australian Taxation Office (Tax Office) told them in \n1998 that they abused the system. This paper examines the circumstances surrounding the \ndecision of taxpayers’ to invest in scheme arrangements, and investors’ perceptions of the \nway the Tax Office dealt with the schemes issue. In addition, this paper explores why such \na large number of investors have chosen to defy the Tax Office’s demands that they pay \nback taxes. Data were taken from interviews conducted with 29 scheme investors, and four \nnon-investors, living in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. Consistent with the \nprocedural justice literature, the findings revealed that many scheme investors chose to \ndefy the Tax Office’s request that they pay back tax because they perceived the procedures \nthat the Tax Office used to handle the situation as unfair. The implications of these \nfindings are discussed and possible solutions for how the Tax Office might prevent a reoccurrence \nof the situation in the future are proposed.
Author: Kristina Murphy
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2913625618