Country note: Integrity – The Keystone to Good Tax Administration

Abstract

Corruption has a corrosive impact on the wellbeing of a nation, and is especially damaging to tax administrations. The article explores the causes of corruption both from the perspective of the design of tax systems and from the perspective of tax administrations. It outlines a range of generic remedies that can be used to minimize the risk of corruption. In giving life to these generic remedies the article follows the approach taken by the Australian Taxation Office to reinvigorate its integrity framework as a result of the improper conduct of an assistant commissioner (Petroulias) in the late 1990s.