Revenue Systems Research Articles

Administrative and Economic Systems of the Mughal Empire: A Historical Analysis of Governance and Revenue Policies

The Mughal Dynasty commenced in 1526, led by the esteemed Babur, who is renowned as the pioneer and founder of Indian civilization through the process of unification. Due to its vast territorial reach from Kabul to Bengal, with natural boundaries such as the Arabian Sea and Himalayas, this dynasty was able to establish sophisticated formal institutions that surpassed those of other empires worldwide at that time. This study examines the complex governance system of The Mughal Empire, with a focus on the reigns of Babur, Humayun, Akbar, and Aurangzeb. Abul-Fazl Ibn Mubarak, a prominent historian during Akbar's reign, elucidated the Mughals' adoption of the dual strategies of 'JahanBani' (state maintenance) and 'Jahangiri' (imperial expansion). The article also examines Akbar's reforms in land revenue systems, which aimed to provide uniformity and economic stability in order to sustain the Empire's prosperity. The inclusion of women in the Mughal court is examined to highlight their cultural, political, and social achievements. This examination thoroughly explores the functioning of the Mughal administration and how it effectively maintained the empire's supremacy.

Political Conditions of Kashmir under Sikh Rule: A Historical Analysis (1819-1846)

This research paper critically examines the political conditions of Kashmir during the transformative period of Sikh rule, spanning from the early to mid-19th century. Under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the annexation of Kashmir marked a pivotal moment in the region's history, replacing the erstwhile Afghan and Mughal influences with Sikh governance. The study aims to unravel the intricacies of this historical juncture by scrutinizing administrative policies, socio-political dynamics, and the enduring consequences of Sikh rule on the Kashmir Valley. By employing a comprehensive analysis of primary and secondary sources, the research elucidates the governance structures implemented by the Sikh rulers, encompassing the appointment of administrators, revenue systems, and the assimilation of Kashmir into the broader Sikh Empire. The study further investigates the interactions between the Sikh administration and the local nobility, probing shifts in power dynamics and the implications for governance. Additionally, the paper explores the religious landscape, assessing Sikh policies promoting religious freedom and tolerance, and evaluates the socio-economic impact on agriculture, trade, and the general welfare of the Kashmiri populace. A pivotal aspect of this research involves an examination of resistance and revolts against Sikh rule, elucidating the multifaceted nature of opposition that emerged during this period. Finally, the study delves into the lasting legacy of Sikh governance, delineating its enduring effects on the political, social, and cultural fabric of Kashmir. Through this exploration, the research endeavors to contribute nuanced insights into a crucial yet underexplored chapter in Kashmir's historical narrative.

Evolution and Impact of Agrarian and Revenue Systems: A Study of Hyderabad State

This article based on the ‘evolution and impact of agrarian and revenue systems: A study of Hyderabad state’ during the second half of the 19th century important changes have taken place in the agricultural sector. The new land revenue reforms and the land tenure systems introduced by Salar Jung contributed to the growth of agriculture cultivation and the introduction of modern methods of cultivation increased the yields. Importantly, the state of Hyderabad was on Economic depression and unfavorable trade due to impact I world war struck the state economy. However, the area under cultivation in 18 percent at the end of the period against 1911. The disappointed rainfall resulted in restricted cultivation for the period 1921-31. Consequence was cattle loss and people migration. Part of the Telangana declared as famine-stricken and relief rendered. The state experienced good health of its economy during the period 1901-1911. During the period, irrigation and railway expansion and increase in textile and mine industry. Agricultural methods were improved and area cultivated advanced (84 per cent increased from 1881 figure). It resulted in increase in population (36 per cent). In 1911-1921, the natural calamity, plague (1911) and influenza epidemic (1918-19) were the main setbacks. Hyderabad State evolved from the Mughal Provinces of the Deccan under NizamalMulkAsalJah. The Mughal agrarian system as existing in the Deccan was continued and adopted by NizamelMulk and it formed the basis for that of Hyderabad. The same was continued by Nizam Ali Khan and his successors with some changes and improvement from time to time to the exigencies of time and for the benefit and welfare of the people. The study may be classified into three systems as followed Land Revenue System, Jagirdari System and the Chauth and Sardeshmukhi System.

Effect of Integrated Financial Management Information Revenue Systems on Financial Management in County Governments, Kenya

There have been significant improvements in Kenya's legal and institutional frameworks for public finance management (PFM) during the last six years, but the country's public finance management domain is still facing several problems that are at odds with sound PFM practices. The researchers set out to learn how much of an impact the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) had on county governments' use of Financial Management in Kenya. The research set out to determine how the IFMIS revenue system has influenced financial management in Kenya's county administrations. Descriptive and causal research methods were used. A total of 302 workers from the Treasury Departments of the County Governments of Kakamega, Busia, Vihiga, Trans Nzoia, and Bungoma were surveyed. This included 44 Procurement officers, 46 internal auditors, 89 Accountants, 87 Finance officers, and 42 Revenue officers. The 172 participants were chosen by stratified random selection. Questionnaires were used to gather the primary data. Content and construct validity were established via the pilot research, and reliability was calculated using the Cronbach Alpha statistic. Data was summarized using frequencies, means, standard deviations, and percentages using descriptive analysis, while correlation and multiple linear regression were employed using SPSS 26.0 for inferential analysis. At the 5% threshold of significance, hypotheses were examined. Models were developed and data was tabulated. The results showed that the County Governments in Western Kenya's financial management varied greatly (R2 = 0.443, P 0.0001) depending on the revenue method they used. At a significance threshold of P<0.05, the regression coefficient for IFMIS revenue system was 0.670, indicating that a one-unit shift in the IFMIS revenue system would lead to a 0.670-unit shift in financial management in the County governments in Western Kenya. Therefore, the research indicated that the IFMIS revenue system had a considerable impact on the budgetary practices of Kenya's county governments. To guarantee sustainable accomplishment and effective service delivery to the communities, the report suggests that county governments ought to digitize all tax collecting platforms.

Can colonial institutions explain differences in labour returns? Evidence from rural colonial India

AbstractThis paper studies the relationship between land revenue systems and returns to agricultural labour in colonial India. I provide the first district‐level comparative estimates of agricultural labour returns relative to average income, on the basis of wage/income ratios for 1916. I then use those estimates to analyse the impact of the land revenue systems established by the British colonial authorities. Results show that districts with a larger proportion of non‐landlord land revenue systems presented higher relative wages, closer to the average income. This effect was mainly driven by differences in land concentration connected to the type of landownership introduced by land revenue systems.

A Review of Ancillary Services Implementation in the Revenue Management Systems

Ancillary services in air transport represent a set of services provided to passengers to choose from, enabling them to enhance their travel experience while accumu-lating additional airline revenue. Low-cost airlines pi-oneered the practice, but the separation of ancillary services from the basic service has become an intense-ly growing trend in the air transport industry over the last decade. This practice has enabled low-cost airlines to significantly reduce the price of the basic service. To remain competitive in an era of transparency provided by search engines, traditional airlines offer ancillary ser-vices in addition to the basic service. To meet the passen-ger’s needs, a whole range of ancillary services has been created. However, existing revenue management systems do not take this ancillary revenue into account when cal-culating reservation limits. If the airline knew that an in-dividual passenger is willing to pay more for ancillary services, the system would be able to adjust the availabil-ity of the service for that passenger during the booking process. A review of research on passengers’ willingness to pay for ancillary services is presented in the paper, as well as a review on research on the personalisation of ancillary services and challenges of integrating person-alised pricing into existing revenue management systems.

The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Government Revenue in the Extractive Industry in Tanzania

Tanzania has not been unique amid the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of economic impact. Since the first case was announced in March 2020, several thousand cases have been confirmed with several hundred deaths (real-time data). There were a number of transmitting factors and effects that exposed Tanzanian national revenue systems to great economic risk if COVID-19 was not well managed. The paper assesses the level of risks on the total government revenue resource systems, government revenue collections from the extractive industries and national expenditure budget performances. This descriptive paper uses results from the HakiRasilimali field research survey, 2020. The paper found high and increasing levels of negative and perceived risks on the government revenue mobilization, collection and utilization due to the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority perceived that the COVID-19 pandemic has high levels of risks and negative effects on the national budget expenditure frameworks in medium- and long-term periods. In the short run it is not easy to cut down and stop major recurrent government expenditures in developing economies. The public expenditure resources allocated to the Ministry of Minerals have been increasing during the COVID-19 pandemic to support the on-going mining reforms in Tanzania. Also, the government was compelled to allocate more financial resources to the health sector in order to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath, as well as support other most affected sectors. The paper recommends that the best way of preventing and combating the COVID-19 risks and related public health threats or possibilities is to protect and give capacity to socio-economic entities, sectors and actors’ abilities in achieving their desired short-, medium- and long-term objectives. To support a robust health and economic policy response, Tanzania has in its potential fiscal space relative to other East African countries, stable political environment, high international reserves, larger domestic market and favorable mineral commodity price movements. Tanzania has enhanced political preparedness and containment capacity through measures to strengthen detection, surveillance and combating the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic evaluation of the use of distillers dried grains with solubles in swine feeding

This study proposes to undertake an economic assessment of the inclusion of different levels of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in diets for pigs in different production stages and categories (growing and finishing), namely: barrows fed diets containing 0 or 20% DDGS; and finishing barrows and sows fed diets containing 0, 10, 20, and 30% DDGS. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the price of corn in three simulated scenarios with different revenue systems: an optimistic scenario (lowest price); a regular scenario (medium price); and a pessimistic scenario (highest price). Inclusion of DDGS in the swine diet can reduce feeding costs and improve the profitability of production, about finishing males and females, the profit per kilogram of weight gain (US$/kg) were better in 10% of DDGS inclusion, 0.23, 0.28 respectively, but for growing and finishing, it was smaller in 20% (0.32 US$/kg) of DDGS inclusion than the 0% control treatment (0.33 US$/KG). The inclusion of DDGS must be carefully planned, since its use may depress animal performance and its inclusion is linked to the costs of the other ingredients that make up the diet.

Participative Gatekeeping: The Intersection of News, Audience Data, Newsworkers, and Economics

The use of metrics and analytics is becoming pervasive in newsrooms the world over. However, there is a lack of consistent terminology in scholarly literature with regards to such practice and a dearth of studies that compare practice on a wider scale that prevents more holistic understanding of how audience data are being used on the newsroom floor. These issues are addressed with the development of a new participative gatekeeping model with three previously unidentified channels of gatekeeping specifically related to the use of audience data: promotional, for the type of short-term gatekeeping done on news site homepages that involves tracking real-time metrics to position content, often tied to traffic targets; developmental, or longer-term strategies that shape future coverage and are grounded in hypotheses of audience behaviour gleaned from analytics; and a third more porous channel of experimentation where such hypotheses are tested. These channels were observed in ethnographic research in six newsrooms in three different countries at media outlets with diverse sources of revenue: Norway’s public broadcaster, NRK; Canada’s subscriber-based national news agency, The Canadian Press (CP); and two local newsrooms working within larger media organizations, The Hamilton Spectator in Canada, and The Bournemouth Daily Echo in England. Through a sociological lens, this article distinguishes language to best document the complex processes interconnected with audience data, identifies similarities in practice that override media or revenue systems, and explores how the audience, through the participatory mechanisms of metrics and analytics, shapes newsroom practice.

Revenue management systems as symbiotic analytics systems: insights from a field study

Revenue management is a complex operational planning process involving predictive and prescriptive analytics. As real-world implementations strongly rely on the joint outcomes from both algorithms and analysts, we consider the revenue management system as an example of symbiotic analytics systems. This paper presents insights from a field study observing a natural experiment in revenue management. As a firm updates its automated revenue management systems, it also updates the related processes and the corresponding organizational structure. We use this opportunity to examine the multilevel use of symbiotic analytics systems based in a field study and explore the implications for the design of future systems. Specifically, we identify two different perspectives on the revenue management process. In the functional view, jobs are organized sequentially with a high degree of system-oriented specialization. The process view organizes jobs in a parallel structure, differentiating two perspectives on demand. Depending on what view the firm implements, different structural fault lines turn the communication and training of analysts into keystones of the planning process. Furthermore, as we point out, even implementing more sophisticated algorithms and redesigning planning processes and organization do not seem to reduce the relevance of human analysts.

Mind the (Tax) Gap! It is Bigger and More Complex than You Think

Historically, national revenue agencies have relied largely on trends in aggregate revenue collections along with reporting on compliance yields as the central element of their performance reporting, together with a few efficiency-related measures. Generally, trends of increasing revenue collections (ahead of budget) and rising compliance program outputs have been seen as indicators of a successful revenue agency and a healthier tax system. But is this necessarily the case? Do such indicators properly and adequately reflect the health of the tax system? In an effort to answer these questions, a relatively small but growing number of national tax agencies have over the last decade or so sought to better understand the health of their tax system by turning their attention to the concept of the ‘tax gap’— the difference between the estimated amount of tax legally payable for each tax administered and what is actually collected in practice. This interest has brought a focus to better understanding tax gap estimation methods, the introduction of comprehensive tax gap research programs, and the public dissemination of tax gap findings to increase community awareness and draw attention to the fact the revenue agency is serious about the tax gap as a long-term performance measure. This development constitutes a new frontier in the management of government revenue systems. And as these agencies often have administrative responsibility for more than just taxes (e.g. student loan repayments and superannuation contributions), these tax gap estimates can have implications beyond just taxes. In the case of the individuals income tax, this must also mean that related tax gap estimates pose a frontier challenge to government agencies administering income-related transfers (e.g. pensions and unemployment benefits) and service entitlements (e.g. health care cards). This paper builds on recent tax gap research findings published by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and examines what they mean for the main types of individuals income tax non-compliance, the main perpetrators, the behaviours underlying this non-compliance, and possible policy and administrative responses. The analysis is made by allocating the ATO’s individuals income tax gap estimates to its 2% individuals sample file of taxpayers in 2016-17 and reviewing the results by sources of tax gap and how they differ across various socio-economic and demographic groupings. The paper also examines what these results might mean for the repayment of income-contingent Study and Training Support Loans (STSL) and for the payment of means-tested government transfers. Finally, the paper presents a menu of potential reforms to address key weaknesses in individuals income tax policy design and administration.

¿Pueden producirse las innovaciones de la Cuarta Revolución Tecnológica al interior de los sistemas de administración pública?

Theoretical approaches and applied research on the relationship between technological changes and innovations and public administration are usually characterized by a type of work program that explains the changes in public administration based on the technological transformations and innovations taking place in “society”. However, comparative experience, and also that of Latin America, shows how in multiple occasions the technological changes and innovations produced within public administration systems have impacted on social processes, re-enrolling economic and social actors, including large business actors, in these innovations and producing changes with intensive use of ICT which transformed social associations at the national, continental and global levels. The article explores the cases of changes in financial administration, procurement and contracting and public revenue systems produced in Latin America, using the science and technology studies of the Network Actor Theory. It addresses its implications in relation to the transformations known as the fourth industrial revolution, the different ways of dealing with the processes of change, innovation, adaptation or modernization of public administrations, and the way in which innovation in State administrations, especially in the fourth technological revolution, can lead to broader social transformations.

Taxation Systems in the EU: The Role of Economic Integration and Global Financial Crisis

This study aims to scrutinize the change of public revenue systems of the EU-15 between 1980 and 2016. The share of consumption taxes in total tax revenues increases and this process have triggered higher tax burden on labor in most of the EU countries via indirect taxation. In this study I use panel data analysis, in order to analyze the impact of global financial crisis on depreciated tax revenues in most of the member states. Political integration and global financial crisis reduce national tax revenues and this revenue loss differs due to tax system asymmetries among member states. Although indirect taxation is an easy way of compensating revenue loss for indebted countries, this type of public finance damages stability of tax revenues in long run.

The practice management components needed to support comprehensive medication management in primary care clinics

AbstractBackgroundPractice management (ie, the necessary resources and support to provide comprehensive medication management [CMM] in an efficient and productive manner) is a central part of CMM practice. However, research identifying the key components of CMM practice management was previously lacking.MethodsPharmacists providing CMM from 35 primary care clinics across five states were divided into three cohorts. One‐on‐one semi‐structured interviews were conducted with the lead pharmacist from all clinics in Cohort 1. Participants were asked to describe the essential components of CMM practice management as they applied to their practice. Inductive coding of transcripts led to an initial practice management framework. Participants in Cohorts 2 and 3 reviewed the essential components and participated in individual cognitive interviews. Throughout this process, a series of four focus groups with managers who oversaw pharmacists providing CMM also occurred to obtain their initial perspectives, as well as feedback on the evolving essential components of practice management.ResultsThirteen essential components of CMM practice management emerged: leadership support, availability and adequacy of clinic space, billing and revenue systems, methods for identifying patients in need of CMM, scheduling CMM services, care documentation, presence and scope of collaborative practice agreements, interprofessional collaboration, engagement of support staff, measuring CMM data, reporting CMM data and outcomes, quality assurance processes, and practitioner training. These essential components were grouped into five overarching domains: organizational support, care delivery processes, care team engagement, evaluating CMM services, and ensuring consistent and quality care.ConclusionThis study defined the essential components of CMM practice management which may be used to guide CMM practice development and advancement.

Territorial inequality, equalization transfers and asymmetric sharing of non-renewable natural resources in Latin America

Non-renewable natural resources (NRNR) contribute a large share of tax revenue in Latin American countries; and the fact that these resources are concentrated in just a few regions generates a high level of territorial inequality. This paper aims to analyse how NRNR revenues could be included in equalization grants, and how countries are implementing adequate equalization grant systems, or could do so. Based on fiscal equalization theory, vertical and horizontal systems are evaluated with reference to mid-level governments in Argentina and Peru. The study identifies a variety of political and economic costs for different NRNR revenue systems, where: (i) the provinces own the resources in question (Argentina); and (ii) NRNR revenues are collected and distributed by central government to a large number of subnational governments under a fully asymmetrical scheme (Peru).

Revenue Management Decision-Making Given Non-Stationary Demand and Two Alternative Decision Tasks

State-of-the-art revenue management systems combine mathematical algorithms for forecasting and optimization with human decision making. As analysts can overrule the automated demand forecast and inventory optimization, their decisions have a crucial impact on revenue management success. We present a new experimental design to examine the impact of non-stationary demand and alternative decision tasks on revenue management decision making. Furthermore, we present experimental results from a corresponding study, quantifying the gap between human decision making and mathematical optimization and evaluating decision errors. Our results highlight that human decision makers struggle to accommodate non-stationary demand. This triggers a loss-aversion bias, where decision makers accept too many low-value requests early in the booking horizon and rejecting too many requests later. When asked to set prices rather than accepting or rejecting individual requests, they overly rely on the predicted willingness to pay as an anchor for decision making. From these results, we draw implications for future research and for the design of symbiotic analytics systems.

Innovative Business Models in Developing Meat Ecotourism in Toba Samosir

Meat Village, located in sub district Tampahan Toba Samosir North Sumatra Indoensia, is a village that has great potential to be ecotourism village. In addition to its location in Lake Toba, it has also a beautiful environment, cultural value and local wisdom. This potential has not been developed to become ecotourism village business due to the lack of people’s awareness and understanding to create business models and understand business development references. This study aims to describe and analyze the innovation of the right business models in Meat village using Canvas Model components: customer segments, customer relationships, channels, value propositions, revenue systems, key activities, key resources, key partners, and cost structure.To obtain the original and maximum results, the researchers combined a quantitative and qualitative method, scoring and interviews, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Data collection was conducted through dissemination activities to inspire people to innovate, Ecotourism village training, survey, and questionnaires. The findings of this research indicate that business innovation of Ecotourism development model in Meat village has long-term success if supported by community, local government, mentoring from Del Technology Institute and Indonesian Ministry of Coordinating Ministry of Marine Affairs.

Manager perceptions of big data reliability in hotel revenue management decision making

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions that managers have of the value and reliability of using big data to make hotel revenue management and pricing decisions.Design/methodology/approachA three-stage iterative thematic analysis technique based on the approaches of Braun and Clarke (2006) and Nowell et al. (2017) and using different research instruments to collect and analyse qualitative data at each stage was used to develop an explanatory framework.FindingsWhilst big data-driven automated revenue systems are technically capable of making pricing and inventory decisions without user input, the findings here show that the reality is that managers still interact with every stage of the revenue and pricing process from data collection to the implementation of price changes. They believe that their personal insights are as valid as big data in increasing the reliability of the decision-making process. This is driven primarily by a lack of trust on the behalf of managers in the ability of the big data systems to understand and interpret local market and customer dynamics.Practical implicationsThe less a manager believes in the ability of those systems to interpret these data, the more they perceive gut instinct to increase the reliability of their decision making and the less they conduct an analysis of the statistical data provided by the systems. This provides a clear message that there appears to be a need for automated revenue systems to be flexible enough for managers to import the local data, information and knowledge that they believe leads to revenue growth.Originality/valueThere is currently little research explicitly investigating the role of big data in decision making within hotel revenue management and certainly even less focussing on decision making at property level and the perceptions of managers of the value of big data in increasing the reliability of revenue and pricing decision making.

Mining the Common Ground

The mining and energy sectors are very important to Australia's economy and its revenue and retirement income systems. Indeed, as we have seen in the unfolding of the downturn, there is a high level of interdependence and interconnection. Strong economic growth was reflected in increasing revenue streams until 2008-09. Both of these have helped put Australia high on indicators of quality of life, among other things.

A Critical Analysis of Tax Avoidance Schemes in Australia

Taxation, as defined for the purposes of this paper, is - the compulsory acquisition of goods and services, usually in the form of cash, by a government, from its people, for no return. It differs primarily from a gift in that it is taken by way of compulsion rather than being given voluntarily. There is an expectation on the behalf of taxpayers that the government will provide security and social order as well as social, infrastructure and welfare services such as education, health and amenities. Governments, faced by the eternal economic problem of boundless wants and limited resources often fail to deliver to the satisfaction of all. By its very nature therefore, a natural human aversion is created to the payment of taxes. In modern democracies, which rely on the goodwill of the populace to retain office, the matter of government revenue is a heavily debated political issue. The emotional nature of the social issue often far outweighs the logical economic issue of government responsibility for the fair and equitable distribution of wants and needs of society. In modern capitalist society there remains a need for government intervention in the economy to ensure the populace have a fair distribution of wealth and that the economy is serviced by the infrastructure essential to maintain and service the needs of industry and commerce to conduct industry and professions. Since the times of the Punic Wars when the site of Hannibal’s camp was auctioned in Rome, confidence tricksters have created fanciful schemes to encourage the unwary or the naive into giving them large sums of money or goods for worthless or non-existent goods or services. No scheme works with greater efficiency than tax avoidance. Entrepreneurs and confidence tricksters have exploited taxpayer’s natural aversion to paying income tax to promote schemes to divert monies from taxation into projects which substitute payments from taxation revenue to their own projects. Australian commercial ventures and taxation legislation are influenced by the nation’s position as a sophisticated Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (‘OECD’) nation centred among the developing and third world nations of South East Asia and the South Pacific. Schemes range from genuine attempts to promote and provide incentive to introduce innovations to commerce and industry which are encouraged by the government through taxation incentives such as Part 10BA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) and afforestation project incentives, to outright frauds such as the sale of contracts and investments which are nominal or totally non-existent. This paper examines the impact of tax incentives in the encouragement of tax avoidance and the international responses to Australia’s sophisticated OECD taxation environment by it’s near neighbours. South Pacific Nations such as Vanuatu and the Cook Islands openly promote of their ‘tax haven’ status and encourage Australians to use their blatantly open tax avoidance legislation to bolster their own flagging economies at the expense of Australian taxation revenue. Anti-Tax Avoidance legislation such as Part IVA of the ITAA is proving ineffective as the government finds itself losing outright control in the political arena. Reliance on coalitions and the support of minority parties in Parliament has resulted in a series of legislative compromises which is placing Australian taxation systems in real jeopardy. Poor government decisions over many generations have produced a social and political climate which has eroded taxpayer confidence in government and Australian politicians. The modern Australian taxpayer now feels he or she is not getting value for money and is more willing than ever to avoid taxation liabilities. Taxpayers, as demonstrated by the proliferation of public scandals in recent times, are all too willing to join taxation beneficial schemes and projects that are nothing more than fraudulent shams. This paper seeks an answer to effective and efficient taxation revenue systems while encouraging industry and controlling the ever-present trickster, who is all too able to prey on the unknowing, unwary or equally devious taxpayer. Australia must recognise not only its political and social position but also its geographical position in determining its taxation policy for the future.