TAXES, GROWTH AND THE CURRENT ACCOUNT TICK-CURVE EFFECT (journal article)
By Creina Day and Garth Day
from Australian Economic Papers Vol 49 Iss 1 2010, pp. 13- 27
"This paper examines the dynamic and long run effects of a shift from income taxes to consumption taxes in a growing small open economy. We introduce a government sector that maintains a balanced budget and expenditure at a constant proportion of domestic income to a small open economy Swan-Solow model. Our framework provides a previously unidentified dynamic effect that is robust to endogenising the savings rate. Lowering the income tax rate promotes economic growth and has a tick-curve effect on the current account balance, characterised by instantaneous deterioration, a period of recovery and gradual convergence to an improved position in the long run."

Reforming capital gains tax : the myths and reality behind Australia's most misunderstood tax [book]

Author: Stephen Kirchner, Centre for Independent Studies

"Argues for further reform of capital gains tax, building on the approach taken by the Ralph reforms a decade ago. Reform options include a flat tax rate for capital gains, the abolition of minimum holding periods for concessional tax treatment, and the reinstatement of the indexation of capital gains for inflation." - page 2.

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Available in journal collection @ Centre for Independent Studies (Australia). CIS Policy Monograph; No 103 (November 2009)

Unrealised gains : the competitive possibilities of tax reform [book]
Author: Business Council of Australia

The Business Council of Australia's final submission to the Australia's future tax system review, chaired by Dr Ken Henry.
"Calls for a tax system that maximises community wealth. Among the reforms proposed in Unrealised Gains are lower corporate tax and lower taxes on local savings, measures that support a shift in focus over time away from taxing the means of production to taxing consumption. In the tougher economic environment of the next decade, our biggest growth opportunity will come from attracting a larger share of scarce global investment capital.Lower corporate tax and lower tax on local savings will boost investment. And higher investment in turn will raise productivity, wages and living standards over the next 20 years." - publisher's website.

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Call number: 336.2050994 UNR 2009

Winning and losing in business [audio CD]

Author: Michael Schildberger / Business Essentials

Introduction -- Economic update -- Winning and losing in business -- Marketing : think differently -- Where the property market is heading -- Convincing customers to buy -- Tax update -- Survey reveals poor cash flow tracking -- Sharemarket update -- Workplace stress : friend or foe?

Find it at: AUDIO CD WIN or
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Prepare now for the recovery [Audio CD ROM]

Author: Michael Schildberger / Business Essentials

Introduction -- Economic update -- Prepare now for the recovery -- Negotiating a better lease -- Do you deliver what you promise? -- Managing redundancy -- Young entrepreneur : on track for growth -- The big hurdle : leadership after you -- Sharemarket update -- Tax update -- Are you killing your co-workers?

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A Taxing debate : climate policy beyond Copenhagen [book]

Author: Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA)

Essays include: Reforms in the greenhouse era : who pays, and how? / Michael Porter -- Consumption-based emissions policy : a vaccine for the CPRS 'trade flu’? / Geoff Carmody -- R&D Policy / CRA International -- Forging a global agreement on climate change : realities, politics and practicalities / ITS Global.

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What's not to like? - The economy (article)
by John Langmore
from Inside Story. 06/01/2010
"American Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman argues that a financial transaction tax “would be a trivial expense for people engaged in foreign trade or long term investment; but it would be a major disincentive for people trying to make a fast buck (or euro, or yen) by outguessing the markets over the course of a few days or weeks.” “What’s not to like?” he asks. Critics claim that it would be avoided, but the centralisation of such transactions makes them relatively easy to monitor – if there is a will to do so. The tax is one way of shrinking bloated financial sectors and of raising revenue from those who have benefited most from the explosive growth in the volume of international financial transactions."

Borrowing brilliance : how to build on the ideas of others : the six steps to business innovation [book]

Author: David Kord Murray

Great thinkers through history - Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs - have understood this and used it to their advantage. Now you can too, with the help of David Murray's practical six-step 'borrowing' process.
Borrowing isn't really intellectual theft; it's the core creative thinking technique. Contrary to what many of us believe, creativity can be learned and is easily within reach. Using practical lessons from the careers of brilliant thinkers, Murray lifts the veil off the creative process, showing us how to tap into our own creativity and become the innovators we'd love to be.

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Who cares about super? (article)
by Alan Kohler
from Business Spectator, 15.12.2009
"Sometimes the simplest, most obvious ideas are the best. The Super System Review’s idea for restructuring the architecture of super has the great benefit of simplicity, but whether it’s good or not depends entirely on the detail.The idea, in essence, is to divide the big funds into two: 'care' and 'don’t care'. The review panel, chaired by Jeremy Cooper, calls them 'Choice' and 'Universal', but the effect is the same. Actually, yesterday’s preliminary recommendations would divide super into four types of fund, but two of them – eligible roll-over funds (to be renamed 'Disconnected') and self-managed funds – already exist, so no change there.The real change would be to set up a formal difference between default funds and 'supermarket' funds, and the really important detail about that plan, still to come, involves the regulation of fees."

R&D tax incentives: a reappraisal (journal article)
By Eren Inci
from International Tax and Public Finance Vol 16 Iss 6 Dec 2009, pp. 797-821
"This paper examines R&D tax incentives in oligopolistic markets. We characterize the conditions under which tax incentives reach the socially desirable level of firm-financed R&D spending. The outcome of the market depends not only on the level of technological spillover in the industry but also on the degree of strategic interaction between the firms. One major result emerges from the model: The socially desirable level of R&D investment is not necessarily reached by subsidizing R&D. When the technological spillover is sufficiently low, the government might want to tax R&D investments, and this result does not necessarily arise because firms are overinvesting in R&D. There are also cases in which an R&D tax is desirable even though firms are underinvesting in R&D compared with the first-best optimum. In practice, this theoretical finding calls for a lower sales tax combined with an R&D subsidy in oligopolistic industries with high technological spillovers, and a lower sales tax combined with an R&D tax in oligopolistic industries with low technological spillovers. "
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Doing business 2010 : reforming through difficult times [book]

Authors: World Bank; International Finance Corporation

"Presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies ... and over time. Regulation affecting 10 stages of the life of a business are measured: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business." - contents.

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TEN PRINCIPLES FOR TAX REFORM (journal article)
By Robert Carling
from Policy Vol. 25 Issue 3 Spring 2009, pp. 9-15
"Australia's tax system needs principles that go beyond efficiency, equity and simplicity. The author discusses ten principles for tax reform."

Taxation of SMEs : key issues and policy considerations [online]

Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"Covers a broad range of SME taxation issues, including possible effects of taxation on the creation and growth of SMEs, and considerations arising from a relatively high compliance burden." - abstract.

Warning : scammers are targetting you [Audio CD]
Author: Business Essentials
Contains the following segaments: Introduction -- The economy 2009/10 -- Warning : scammers are targetting you -- Winning ways to boost sales -- 12 hidden opportunities in a downturn -- Outsource your HR headaches -- Is now a good time to recruit? -- Cashflow : think outside the square -- Tax update -- Sharemarket update -- Storytelling to communicate your messages.
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Revealing Australia’s Real Income Tax Rates (journal article)
By John Humphreys
From Policy Vol 25 Issue 2 Winter 2009, pp. 32-34.
“The article focuses on the effort of the government of Australia to engage an inquiry into the Australian tax and transfer system. According to the article, a transparent information on how the system works is needed to meaningfully address the income tax system. It is stated that the government must start publishing the real personal income tax scale which includes the full impacts of both the Medicare levy and low income tax onset (LITO).”

You can still retire rich, really (journal article)
by Jon Birger, Joan Caplin and Beth Kowitt
from Fortune, 22 June 2009
"The article discusses the ways in which the recession may assist workers in retiring wealthy. Steps that the author feels employees should take in order to retire rich are mentioned, such as to purchase stocks before stock prices rebound. Recommendations are made regarding the amount of money people should save and the types of investments that they should have in their investment portfolio."

Reforming Australia’s hidden welfare state : tax expenditures as welfare for the rich [book]

Authors: Bejamin Spies-Butcher, Adam Stebbing / Centre for Policy Development
"Outlines possible reforms to one of the largest tax expenditures, superannuation. By transforming this particular tax expenditure into a rebate program, which would be subject to proper budget scrutiny, Australia’s superannuation arrangement could be made more accountable and more equitable." - page 3.

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Proposals for the reform of the taxation of goodwill in Australia [book]

Author: Michael Walpole, Australian Tax Research Foundation

"Demonstrates how aspects of the law of goodwill infuse the tax law - from the duties on property levied by Australian States, through income tax laws to the federal capital gains tax ... Argues that tax operates at the crossroads of accounting, law, and economics and there should be agreement on what goodwill is - and how it should be taxed." - cover.

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OECD. Economic Policy Reforms going for growth, 2009 [online]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"This fifth edition of Going for Growth comes at a time when OECD countries are faced with the most severe financial and economic crises in a lifetime. The still unfolding global crisis and recession have inevitably raised questions about the extent to which markets can be trusted to deliver good outcomes and whether earlier reforms have contributed to make economies more vulnerable. ... This report identifies three broad fiscal/structural reforms that could yield a “double-dividend” at present: increased spending on infrastructure; increased spending on active labour market policy, including on compulsory training courses; and reduction of personal income taxes, notably on low-income earners. In addition, product market reforms that ease entry restrictions and strengthen competition may boost demand in some cases in the short term and increase productivity in the long term."

When Economic Incentives Backfire (journal article)
By Samuel Bowles
from Harvard Business Review Vol 87 Iss 3 Mar 2009, pp. 22-23
"The article offers the author's views on economic incentives and questions the effectiveness of social policy that is based on rewards and economic incentives. Topics include a tax on plastic grocery bags in Ireland, self-interest and public ethics, the idea of economist Richard Titmuss who claimed that incentives reduce supplies, and an experiment with incentives in Israel."