Latest News

A few update issues:

Competition law reform. Success!
We reported to you last Sunday on why the ‘effects test’ Bill is opposed by Labor. It’s simple: Follow the money. Coles pays the shoppies’ union who pays the Labor Party. Coles opposes the Bill. Labor opposes the Bill. Well, on Wednesday, the Misuse of Market Power Bill (Effects test) passed Parliament. Here’s the Senate debate  (watch from about 12.52). Labor opposed. The Greens supported the Bill along with other independent Senators. Well done to them in ensuring a fairer deal for small business people and competition! More...

Corruption is at its worst when it becomes institutionalized as ‘acceptable’ even ‘required’ business behaviour. It’s at its worst when corruption has political patronage and cover. More...

The former Abbott Government Small Business Minister, Bruce Billson, has admitted to the ABC that he was receiving payment from the Franchise Council of Australia while still a Member of Parliament. The admission came on the 7.30 Report viewable here.

You might remember that we did battle with Abbott and Billson back in 2015 when they brought in the Unfair Contract Bill limiting it to contracts up to $100,000.  More...

Looking at politics at the moment one might wonder at how anything functions! And this political dysfunction flows through into government department dysfunction.

Suing the government!
Our truckie friends will be interested in the $600 million class action being organized by farmers over the live cattle export ban in 2011. The Australian’s update is here. More...

It’s great to report the fabulous work being done by the competition regulator in stamping out unfair contracts. Our ten-year campaign to get the laws in place really is paying off for self-employed small business people. More...

Yes, today is the day that every self-employed person dreads.  It’s end of financial year! So what can you legally do with your tax and be certain you have acted legally?

Earlier this week we published (with his permission) correspondence from the ATO to Rod Douglass. Robert Gottliebsen also wrote this up. The reason for publishing this is so you could see for yourself exactly how the ATO treats self-employed small business people. We’ve had a big response.

On reading the correspondence, some people have commented that Rod was actually in the wrong. When we first read the correspondence in 2015 we also thought that that could be a reasonable conclusion! But then, when we looked at the facts, the reverse was the case. Rod had done nothing wrong. That’s why we came in to defend him. Rod had simply followed what, in 2006, the ATO had said on its website he could do! More...

Imagine this. You arrive home from work. You’re a freelance consultant; an engineer or maybe an IT specialist currently doing work for a bank. Even an aged care worker or a plumber! You’re one of the 2 million plus self-employed people in Australia, one of the new breed of entrepreneurial ‘gig’ economy workers, so the commentators say!

A month ago you had a phone chat with a couple of seemingly friendly ATO officers who had queries about how you work and your tax returns. You were open and honest. Nothing to hide! Pretty simple really?

There’s a letter. You open it. It’s 18 pages of confusing Tax Office bureaucratic blabbering. Somehow you’re accused of tax fraud/evasion. You struggle to understand. But one thing hits you. It’s a demand to pay $422,030.64 for taxes going back 10 years, with 50% penalties and interest! More...

If you’ve been following the ATO-Cranston-tax fraud scandal, you’ll see the story is getting murkier and grimier by the day. Here’s the latest.  And here’s our tracking of the story. It’s not just about tax fraud but the way the scandal castes a question mark over the very integrity of the Australian Taxation Office’s operations. More...

Well here’s a turn-up for us! In 2000 (goodness, 18 years ago!) we formed Independent Contractors Australia to advocate for the rights of self-employed people. And in that time we’ve been more successful than we could have envisaged. More...

You’ll be aware of our ongoing heavy criticism of the Australian Taxation Office in their treatment of small business people.  In our view:

‘Mum and dad’ businesses are targeted by the ATO with unfair, even questionably legal, tactics.
And as just one example, we successfully defended Rod Douglass from baseless ATO accusations of fraud/evasion. More...