er6n, Agree totally with you, and I am definitely not a "lefty"....

er6n,

Agree totally with you, and I am definitely not a "lefty".

There is however a fine line between tax minimisation/tax avoidance and "tax evasion"

Tax evasion is a criminal offence, Part 1vA of the Tax Act, and so it should be.

BHP/RIO with the Singapore Hub, were transferring artificially created profits, by overstating shipping costs here in OZ, and transferring them to the offshore company to reduce the tax rate to 5.00%.

In effect their were no transport operations or businesses conducted in Singapore, that's why they have taken steps to cease this arrangement. What they were doing is similar to transfer pricing, which is a non-no in all of the G20 countries.

I deal with these issue daily, and assist with tax minimisation, but I am smart enough not to cross the line, or have my clients enter into schemes that become, evasion.

There are so many schemes being pushed by the big 4, and other so called tax specialists that are in reality tax evasion, they sign them up, slug them huge fees, and always end their advice letter with a page long disclaimer, to cover their arse.