The Federal Government has signalled its intention to pursue yet another campaign against the black economy with the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer calling for stakeholder submissions to the Black Economy Taskforce.
O’Dwyer framed the Government’s latest move against the black economy in similar terms to its crackdown on the use of tax loopholes by multinationals and said the taskforce would be led by the former chair of the B20 Anti-Corruption Taskforce, Michael Andrew.
She said the “black economy” referred to people who operated entirely outside the tax system or who were known to the tax system but deliberately understated their income or overstated their expenses. Black economy participants evade taxes and may also be over claiming welfare and other government benefits.
“The Government has taken significant action to shut down loopholes for multinationals that try and avoid paying tax through measures such as the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law,” O’Dwyer said. “The black economy is the next important piece in the tax integrity puzzle.”
She said the taskforce would consider measures that have been employed overseas and would seek to identify policy responses which took advantage of emerging technology.
“The Taskforce will also consider ways to change community attitudes about the black economy and will look at both positive incentives as well as sanctions,” the minister said.
The Taskforce is expected to produce an interim report by March 2017 and a final report by October 2017.
