in the Government's Efforts to Balance the Budget 14/5/2009

One Nation is Amazed Offshore Tax Havens Were Not Mentioned in the Government's Efforts to Balance the Budget

One Nation is amazed that the money flowing out of Australia into tax havens has not been mentioned by Government, Opposition or commentators in discussions on the Federal Budget.

According to former ACCC chairman Alan Fels, writing in The Age on April 4th, the OECD estimates 5 trillion US dollars is held up worldwide in tax havens or banking secrecy jurisdictions.

If Australia's share of this is only in proportion to our part of the world economy, this is a significant amount added to each person's tax bill, and a significant shortfall in the money the Government has available to spend on health, education and welfare.

According also to the Alan Fels article, in 2008 the Australian Tax Office reported 16 billion dollars, more than a quarter of the Government's present budget deficit, flowed into tax havens in 2006, and the use of tax havens was spreading from large companies to small businesses and individuals.

The same article stated that while European, Caribbean, Singapore and Hong Kong tax havens have been successfully attacked recently by European Governments, tax havens in the Pacific Islands, no doubt a prime centre for Australian tax evasion, are still flourishing.

Could the reluctance of the Government to attack offshore tax havens be due to the fact that large donors to party coffers, media moguls with clout, Labor mates or even politicians themselves are evading tax by this means and shifting an undue amount of the present financial hardship onto the rest of us?

One Nation's policy of a one per cent Electronic Debit Tax to replace all other taxes would cut the abuse of tax havens but until then the Rudd regime should follow European Governments and get serious about tackling this monumental white-collar fraud that is making life harder for all Australians.