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The difficulties in designing and implementing successful technological systems which support business objectives, good work practices and high quality outcomes are well known. Discusses the “modernisation” of the Australian Taxation Office – an ambitious ten‐year programme of organizational and tech‐nological change – which has its origins in the need for re‐equipment and the recognition that the new systems must support the way in which the Taxation Office would work in the future. Review of the programme mid‐term shows considerable success, but also areas where it has been difficult to achieve some of the aims. In spite of the participatory framework, participants tend to feel that technology has driven the process, rather than business or workplace requirements. In particular, some initiatives have impacted negatively on workers, and it has been difficult to integrate the implementation of new systems with the design of better work practices. Recognition of these problems has encouraged the development of new approaches to work and systems design, and considerable further organizational and structural change.

This chapter outlines and critiques Japan’s Furusato Nozei tax program from an economic anthropological perspective. This chapter first introduces the socio-political organization of taxes together with the social-scientific paradigms that have been brought to analyze taxation within anthropological thinking. The chapter then outlines Japan’s tax history and the Furusato Nozei, or Hometown Tax program, before critiquing the program on the basis of these social science and anthropological. This critique confirms the validity of evaluating this Japanese tax program in its orientation and operation from an anthropologic viewpoint, while also calling into question the validity of such an approach to taxation from a broader societal view, thereby contributing to a new area of research within the Anthropology of Taxation.

This paper discusses the designing of a capital gains tax for New Zealand. The essential question is not why such a system is needed but what type of system should be implemented. The paper ignores the political discussion of whether such a tax is necessary and concentrates on design and implementation issues. Drawing from other tax jurisdictions, chiefly the United Kingdom and Australia, this article discusses the merits of tapering relief; indexation (now frozen in Australia); specific exemptions (e.g. owner occupied property); and of re‐defining capital assets into discrete categories which may be treated differently. The aim of the study is to open up the issue of capital gains for informed discussion: how such a tax should be administered, and the possibilities and likely difficulties involved in implementing such a tax.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether corporates, via publicly disclosed sentiment and in response to government initiatives such as domestic corporate tax reform measures that address transparency, are beginning to view tax as a fourth dimension of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

To determine whether corporate attitudes towards tax are changing, representations about the corporate entity by a variety of stakeholders and through numerous channels were analysed using Leximancer software. These representations were in response to four distinct Australian domestic tax reform measures instituted during and subsequent to the Australian Government Senate Inquiry into corporate tax avoidance. The use of Leximancer, a data-analysis and mapping software that automates the coding of document text, delineates concepts and identifies themes, is well suited to the nature and size of the data used (Lodhia and Martin, 2011) and ensures the validity and reliability of the results (Dumay, 2014).

This paper provides evidence on the efficacy of global and domestic tax-reform measures that target tax avoidance through transparency. This is demonstrated by a progressive change in corporate attitudes towards tax and suggests a transition, albeit nascent, from the aggregate view to the real entity view of a corporation. As such, this study provides evidence of the inception of a corporate conscience when it comes to tax, whereby tax is instituted as a fourth dimension of CSR.

Using a theoretical framework which adopts the historically accepted views of the firm, the authors argue that a shift from the aggregate view to the real entity view of a corporation will have the following implications: an expansion of the dimensional factors of CSR (economic, social, environmental and tax); a new standard or definition of corporate responsibility which encompasses both legal and moral considerations and has transparency at its core (Narotzki, 2016); and a new outlook where consumers realise that they have the power to influence and demand action from corporates.

This paper uses state-of-the-art software to empirically test the efficacy of global and domestic tax reform measures that target transparency, ultimately providing evidence supporting the adoption of these measures and the recognition of a new dimension of CSR, tax.

Are franking credit balances priced? This paper aims to investigate the valuation of franking credit balances via a determinant analysis and value relevance analysis.

The determinant analysis examines the factors that contribute to the increasing cumulative level of franking credit balances. Value relevance studies explore whether franking credit balances are priced in the market.

The results provide strong evidence of a size effect that the level of franking credit balances increases with firm size and weak evidence of an international focus effect that the level of franking credit balances increases with international ownership. They also find an individual dividend clientele effect that the level of franking credit balances decreases with individual ownership. They find significant evidence that franking credit balances are priced in the market. One dollar of franking credit is worth 1.4 dollars in firm value. That franking balances are capitalized at more than their face value suggests that franking credits signal firms' future dividend policy. They also find that the market valuation of franking balances increases with firm size but decreases with international focus.

This study provides direct evidence that franking credit balances are capitalized into equity prices. In the determinant analysis, this paper improves Heaney's (2009) model by using the percentage of international ownership as the proxy of international focus, thus addressing the limitation of his measure. In the value relevance tests, the study uses a modified model that includes log-transformation to reduce the skewness of variables based on Tanza's (2014) value relevance model. Moreover, the study suggests that the market valuation of franking credit balances increases with firm size, which contradicts Heaney's (2009) findings.

Organised crime groups, in particular drug traffickers, generate considerable amounts of money from their criminal activities. Over the last two decades jurisdictions around the world have therefore put in place confiscation and forfeiture legislation designed to remove such criminal gains. The Performance and Innovation Unit of the Cabinet Office, in its report entitled ‘Recovering the Proceeds of Crime’, has now recommended that a national confiscation agency (NCA) for England and Wales be established, the functions of which will include the institution of civil forfeiture proceedings and the application of the taxation legislation to the proceeds of criminal activity. If enacted, this will essentially provide a threefold strategy designed to remove criminal gains. First, where the evidence permits, the individual may be prosecuted for criminal offences and, upon conviction, a confiscation order may be sought against him. Secondly, if the evidence is not sufficient for criminal prosecution, the individual may have civil forfeiture proceedings instituted against him to deprive him of the illgotten gains, seeking to prove on the balance of probabilities that the property in his possession is, directly or indirectly, the proceeds of crime. Thirdly, if an individual can be shown to have received income during a particular period which the authorities suspect, but have insufficient evidence to prove, is the proceeds of crime, then they may apply the tax legislation to that income and raise a tax assessment against him.

Computer matching is a mass surveillance technique involving the comparison of data about many people, which have been acquired from multiple sources. Its use offers potential benefits, particularly financial savings. It is also error‐prone, and its power results in threats to established patterns and values. The imperatives of efficiency and equity demand that computer matching be used, and the information privacy interest demands that it be used only where justified, and be subjected to effective controls. Provides background to this important technique, including its development and application in the USA and in Australia, and a detailed technical description. Contends that the technique, its use, and controls over its use are very important issues which demand research. Computing, telecommunications and robotics artefacts which have the capacity to change society radically need to be subjected to early and careful analysis, not only by sociologists, lawyers and philosophers, but also by information technologists themselves.

Controlled foreign company (“CFC”) legislation, governed by section 9D of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962, serves as anti‐avoidance legislation in South Africa’s residence‐based tax system. Section 9D provides for the calculation of a deemed amount which must be included in the South African resident’s income. This deemed amount is calculated with reference to the net income for the CFC’s foreign tax year. Section 9D(6) provides for this deemed amount, which is denominated in the foreign financial reporting currency, to be translated into South African rand by applying the average exchange rate for that year of assessment. The legislation refers to the South African resident’s year of assessment and not the CFC’s foreign tax year. It is submitted that the average exchange rate for the CFC’s foreign tax year should be used for translation. The author therefore disputes the period to be used in calculating the average exchange rate.

There has been a significant increase in the number of financial crime regulatory offences (as distinct from traditional fraud offences). The purpose of this paper is to address the question of how should those in positions of control and influence in management take steps to ensure the integrity of those under them and also the relevant conduct of their customers and clients in light of this proliferation.

The work, which is grounded in the field of criminology, uses a combination doctrinal (legal) and qualitative methods. Its emphasis is on mala prohibita (“wrong because they are prohibited”) offences rather than mala in se (“wrong or evil in itself”). The work situates regulatory offences within the broader criminological debate regarding financial crime. It then analyses and reviews the significance of the requirement for certainty in relation to mala prohibita offences. By reference to some Australian offences, the analysis moves to some offences where uncertainty manifests. Finally, the work proposes some practical ways in which those in positions of control and influence may provide certainty to those under them to ensure integrity.

The paper argues that a paramount step for those in positions of control and influence, in taking steps to ensure the integrity of those under them and also the relevant conduct of their customers and clients is to provide certainty with regard to the illicit activities relevant to their organisation to those persons under them. The work proposes some practical ways in which those in positions of control and influence may provide certainty to those under them to ensure integrity.

The work is novel because of its focus on regulatory mala prohibita offences rather than the traditional criminal law or mala in se offences (in relation to which there has been much more discussion).

The purpose of this article is to explore the role that different structures of socially embedded networks themselves play in tax non‐compliance or evasion, and the contribution that an application of network analysis can make to the study of tax compliance regulation.

This exploratory study applies a network approach and uses focus‐group interviewing to unveil tax evasive behaviours that are deeply embedded in specifically selected and structurally different trading networks.

Indicate the kinds of difficulties that tax regulators may face in their attempts to deal with a range of law‐defying practices, which operate both within and among some structurally diversified (social) trading networks of a multicultural nation. The data confirm convincingly that tax evasive behaviours are not solely peculiar to immigrant (NESB) business networks, but are mirroring many beliefs, norms and informal practices that also exist strongly in non‐immigrant networks.

A mixed‐embedded network approach that grasps the rich contexts and complexities involved in the informal behaviours of “networked” small‐business entrepreneurs is to be regarded as a powerful tool in the governance of modern taxation systems.

Fills a gap in the research (literature) on the tax‐compliance behaviours among citizens of a multicultural nation and may have potential for a wider application.