Australian National University. Regulatory Institutions Network; Geis, Gil
Description
Let me at once put the report that follows into perspective. I have been in Australia on
this assignment only a couple of weeks more than two months. There will be people
reading the report who have devoted all or most of their adult life to dealing with tax
matters in Australia. And there are others who every working day over several years
have grappled with issues concerning taxes and the illicit cigarette market, the so-called
‘chop-chop’ phenomenon. There is no way I could learn in the...[Show more] brief time I’ve looked at
these matters most of what these people already know very well.
Hopefully, what I have to offer results from the fact that I am an outsider, scrutinising
the subject with an outsider’s perspective – undoubtedly at times what will prove to be a
naïve perspective, but perhaps at other times a fresh one.
Besides, I’ve brought to this task some fifty years of work on matters of illegal
behaviour, most particularly offences that are labelled white-collar crime. I appreciate
that longevity need not be an asset: a person can make the same mistakes year after
year. But I’d like to believe that along the way I’ve learned things that might render
some of the views and ideas in this report worthwhile.
A penultimate preliminary note: I have been greatly impressed by what the excise tax
personnel have accomplished during the rather brief time period since the world of
domestic tobacco production became part of their domain. To provide a context for this
observation I would note that I tend to be grumpily hypercritical of bureaucracies,
including those of the academic world in which I have spent virtually all of my adult
life. I had not anticipated being impressed by the decency, dedication, and intelligence
of the excise people with whom I worked. But I was, and it is a pleasure to have an
opportunity to say so.
It needs noting, finally, that the following material represents my own views and does
not necessarily reflect the opinions held either by the Centre for Tax System Integrity at
the Australian National University or those of the Australian Taxation Office, both of
whom very kindly sponsored my work.