Contesting Fairness and Fragmenting Groups: Cultural Narratives of Taxation and Citizenship in Globalising Australia

I believe I should render unto the Government, via the Tax Office, a portion of my income to help run the country. taxes should be paid to the Tax Office without hesitation. Taxes and Death are facts of life. (The views of two anonymous Australian taxpayers in 2001 responding to the survey The Australian Tax System, Fair or Not? ) . who was it who said there were only two things that were certain in life--death and taxes? Well the former may be true, but I definitely don't believe the taxes bit. It is one's God given right to try and minimise your taxes that the government wants to take from you". (An offshore funds manager in a Pacific Island "Tax Haven" catering to the world's High Wealth Individuals in an interview with the author.) Introduction This paper argues that narratives of taxation that focus on discourses of fairness are closely related to a prevailing egalitarian ethos in Australian society. Narrated notions of fairness emphasise equity between groups, call for active citizenship and highlight social cooperation just as much as individual competition. These views on the politics of fairness are reflected in practices, attitudes and discourses surrounding taxation. Moreover, these discourses and practices can be conceptualised as statements of cultural action. The qualitative, or self-narrative, responses of a survey carried out by the Centre for Tax System Integrity (CTSI) in 2002 illustrate a widespread public consensus that taxation is a legitimate way of raising government revenue. However, it should be levied and uplifted in a manner that is fair and just across all social groups, institutions and organisations. Taxation should be independent of sectoral interests. However, this sense of fairness is being jeopardised by the widespread view that the wealthy axe not paying a proportionately just amount of tax. In other words there is a perception that High Wealth Individuals (HWIs) and large corporations (both Australian based and multinational) are not paying their "fair share" of tax (Braithwaite 2003). Consequently trust, which is vital for maintaining institutional legitimacy and plays a fundamental role in maintaining and legitimising state power (with positive outcomes for compliance), is being adversely affected by the perception that taxation is increasingly "unfair". This perception of unfairness has the potential to undermine the integrity and long-term viability of the tax system. It also illustrates some of the structural contradictions and tensions of globalisation, namely that the state is failing as an arbitrator of social justice guaranteeing a symmetrically reciprocal relationship between citizens and institutions of governance. Instead the state is in danger of being perceived as an entity that serves a powerful economic elite whose interests lie in transnational processes and accords at the expense of an increasingly variegated citizenry. This has the capacity to not only pose fundamental challenges to institutions such as the Australian Taxation Office (Tax Office) who are required to manage taxation obligations for our community but also undermines the very fabric of our representative democracy. Qualitative implications, methodological foundations and narratives of taxation In 2002, CTSI at the Australian National University (ANU) conducted The Australian Tax System--Fair or Not--You Be the Judge: A Survey of Attitudes and Experiences. This was sent out to 6,944 people, 3,000 who were randomly chosen from open electoral rolls and 3,944 who had previously participated in CTSI's Community Hopes, Fears and Actions Survey (CHFA), carried out in 2000 (Braithwaite 2001; Braithwaite, Reinhart, Mearns, Graham 2001; Braithwaite & Mearns 2001). Of the 6,944 people who were contacted, 2,326 completed and returned the survey, representing a response rate of 33. …