Australia’s Black Economy Taskforce has come up with a list of 35 “consumer-focused” proposals to crack down on cash. The taskforce blames consumers for holding cash and for not getting receipts.
Michael Andrew, the head of the taskforce, proposes nanochips in $50 and $100 notes so the government knows where the cash is. Cash will expire after a designated period of time.
Andrew believes “consumers are part of the problem”. He wants to punish people who pay in cash and don’t get a receipt.
A plan to strip consumers of their legal protections if they pay in cash and fail to get a receipt has been slammed as “completely unfair” by leading advocacy groups.
The proposal was one of 35 recommendations contained in the interim report from the federal government’s Black Economy Taskforce, which argued the need for “consumer-focused action” to crack down on cash payments.
According to Taskforce chair Michael Andrew, former global head of accounting firm KPMG and current chair of the Board of Taxation, while current anti-black economy laws focused on businesses, consumers are “part of the problem”.
“We intend to examine the merits of consumer focused sanctions, including the loss of consumer protections, warranties and legal rights for people who make cash payments without obtaining a valid receipt,” Mr. Andrew wrote. “This is not simply of matter of imposing new penalties, but part of a wider cultural change agenda.”
But he argued any new penalty regime “should be carefully calibrated”, with the strongest sanctions “applying to egregious behavior or repeat offenses”. “Lighter touch approaches (including ‘nudge’ techniques) will be more appropriate in many cases,” he wrote.
Cash Crackdown Boss Proposes Nanochips Notes
Also consider Cash Crackdown Boss Proposes Nanochips Notes.
The man charged with cracking down on the “black economy” has revealed how he would like to keep track of your $100 and $50 notes.
Hi-tech nano-chips would be implanted in Australia’s “disappearing” cash under a plan floated by Michael Andrew, the head of the federal government’s Black Economy Taskforce.
Speaking to The Courier-Mail, Mr. Andrew said too much cash was being hoarded under pensioners’ beds and stockpiled as a trusted currency in China.
Estimates for the size of Australia’s so-called black economy vary from $23 billion to $50 billion. The government claims tax avoidance through cash payments costs the budget up to $10 billion in revenue, money that could go towards funding welfare and other services.
In the May budget, the federal government announced an extra $32 million funding for the Australian Taxation Office to fund its cash crackdown, which it expects to bring in an extra $589 million in revenue over the next four years.
According to Mr. Andrew, who will hand down his final report in October, there should be 14 $100 notes for every adult in Australia but there are fewer than that in circulation. While criminals prefer the $50 note, as the Reserve Bank pointed out in its defense of cash last year, foreign migrants and pensioners prefer $100s.
“You could put a trace on some of these notes to see where they would go. You can use nano technology to put little chips in so you could then trace it.”
Last year, a report by UBS recommended Australia scrap the $100 note. According to UBS, benefits may include “reduced crime (difficult to monetize), increased tax revenue (fewer cash transactions) and reduced welfare fraud (claiming welfare while earning or hoarding cash)”.
Reaction to Taxes
Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm has the right idea.
“The only people who are distressed by the cash economy are the government and the public servants who want to spend taxes. It’s a reaction to the level of taxes we pay,” said Leyonhjel.
ECB Phases Out €500 Note
Last year, the New York Times reported Europe to Remove 500-Euro Bill, the ‘Bin Laden’ Bank Note Criminals Love.
India Cash Ban Experiment
On November 8, 2016, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi stunned the country with an announcement that 500-rupee ($7.30) and 1,000-rupee notes, which account for more than 85 percent of the money supply, would cease to be legal tender immediately.
I commented Cash Chaos in India, 86% of Money in Circulation Withdrawn; Cash Still King in Japan
On August 1, 2017, I offered this update: Letters from India: How Bad Can the Crackdown on Cash and Tax Evasion Get? What’s Next?
The war on cash is moving at breakneck speed.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
I despair because people are not revolting at such proposals. Either they are dumb or they do not care. Is there a way to fight this menace?
LikeLike
50 Ways to Starve the Beast
https://whiskeytangotexas.com/2017/07/16/50-ways-to-starve-the-beast/
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for the reminder Bone Fish, I KNEW there was a reason I moved to BumF**K Nowhere! No zoning laws, no building permits, the sheriff won’t write traffic tickets, and cash is king!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“50 Ways to Starve the Beast”
You only need ONE and it doesn’t take NEARLY that amount of effort. This one alone will truly starve the parasitic beast.:
The Undebtors: Sworn Enemies of the Vampires of Debt
March 17, 2015 – Those who refuse debt, regardless of the sacrifice, are starving the parasitic, exploitive machine; those with debt are feeding it.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar15/undebtors3-15.html
BTW, that column simply describes what is called “delayed gratification”, something which, thanks to the PARASITIC financialization of EVERYTHING is something most people have never tried.
LikeLike
I watch two Australian news bulletins each evening, including the national ABC. Have not seen it mentioned on either.
LikeLike
Shhhhocking.
LikeLike
Well son of a gun!
Er…. I mean….
Mark of the Beast!
LikeLike
Most Americans don’t have cash, just plastic EBT, electronic SSD, SSI, SS credits, etc. The quality of the American people has spun down the toilet and is making its way into the sewer.
LikeLike
Stockpiling 100$ in Hawaii. Need to research how to carry it on board plane as may not be possible and may need to deposit.
LikeLike
http://getawaytips.azcentral.com/amount-currency-can-bring-plane-3952.html
LikeLike
get a petition going with ova a certain amount of signers then present it to parliment,
LikeLike
In Australia, both!
LikeLike
Both as in dumb and they do not care.
LikeLike
Will Gold get its luster back now?
LikeLike
More likely cryptocurrencies.
LikeLike
I’m not biased against cryptocurrencies, but you will find no ‘annonymity’ in them. Once they rally & truly ‘take off’ (and they will), your government will inevitabley crack-down on their use & apply all manner of regulatory oversight.
LikeLike
Purchase of services could dodge, purchase of goods needing transfer of ownership records – not so easy.
Proof of ownership and ownership transfer can be taxed. The Gov will have their pound of flesh once it gets physical at some value.
It might encourage changes in tax regime but not less tax imho.
LikeLike
Zero knowledge proof currencies, and possible such extensions to Bitcoin, provide very strong anonymity guarantees. They’re a bit computationally, and perhaps conceptually, unwieldy as currencies to transact in, but that is just an engineering, or possibly “division of labor” problem. Used in the same way as high denomination notes, while using a faster settling currency (which is the space Bitcoin seems to be pursuing) for day to day activity, they are perfectly viable.
Cryptocurrencies are still in their absolute infancy. Bitcoin is less than a decade old! It took centuries to millennia of evolution and adaptation for fiat notes to largely (and only temporarily…..) replace Gold. Crypto currencies aren’t even out of the starting block yet. They’ll continue to evolve, by hits and misses, until a formula is found that is attractive to enough users to make them highly viable. There is simply no way around that, as their inherent properties are so perfectly aligned with the basic human instincts of protecting that which one owns, of keeping oneself and ones own safe from theft and harm, and of allowing oneself maximal freedom to transact with others unconstrained.
LikeLike
Nice response! [I’d click the “Like” button on many of your posts if I had a Word Press account.]
LikeLike
Much improved anonymity may be coming to Bitcoin in the not too distant future. Right now, Monero provides excellent anonymity but it is more difficult to use (safely). A major hardware wallet company, Ledger, has spoken about incorporating Monero support in their products. If/when this happens, it would become possible for folks who are not internet security savvy to safely use Monero.
LikeLike
Gov’t oversight of cryptocurr. will fail.
Cryptocurr. is & will remain 10-20 steps ahead of governments, who have no real hope to regulate them… which is why they haven’t attempted this “crack-down” (yet).
Gov’t attempts to regulate/ban cryptocurr. will only drive people into cryptocurr. over time… it’s a lose/lose proposition for governments.
LikeLike
I agree Shred. Governments can easily ban gold, silver and physical cash. Cryptocurrencies are more difficult for governments to control.
Also, the entire topic of government control of currency, is an interesting one Kpl. It is pretty simple for government to argue the positives of currency control (which makes it much more difficult for criminals, terrorists and the underground economy). Rather than citizens not caring, they might actually embrace government proposals to “fight the bad guys”. I can imagine that’s how Trump might say it.
LikeLike
It’s a lot easier for government to shut down web sites than it is to confiscate precious metals.
LikeLike
if you think regulating/banning cryptocurr. is just a matter of wrangling a few websites, then you really have no idea what cryptocurr. is & what it is capable of…
LikeLike
after cash is removed, negative interest rates and egregious bank charges will become “de rigeur”.
payments systems like apple/google/world pay will charge either the retailer or the consumer a charge – as in the old days you were charged for each cheque written from a cheque book.
imagine a world with no taxes!!! bliss!! no welfare fraud, no wars, no single payer, home education for free, no rules!!!!.. oh well – libtard socialism is dead, it just doesn’t realize that government by lintard socialism = perpetual deficits and no debt repaid, ever, including pensions.
LikeLike
“The war on cash is moving at breakneck speed”
…
Yes. What Wall Street wants, Wall Street will get. Herd people into plastic where they can shake down the individual for interest and/or fees … and the merchant with fees on every transaction. Win Win … for Wall Street.
LikeLike
Government control is the enemy.
People will lose a basic freedom and become financial battery hens.
LikeLike
And herd them into equities.
LikeLike
Of course, the politicians will encounter REALITY the hard way.
Many businesses are on the edge – not viable unless they can skim some off the books. If they have to report everything, they will simply cease to exist. Impacting landlords, utilities, vendors, etc. Not to mention those formerly employed will be expecting their government hand out.
LikeLike
It’s small business and self-employed that will be hit.
Want inflation?
Force inability to evade tax so prices have to rise to cover the tax take.
Prices will rise.
Deflation take a beating, for a while.
LikeLike
“Force inability to evade tax so prices have to rise to cover the tax take.”
…
Will be met by drop in demand.
Not inflationary at all, imo.
Bottom line – if Wall Street is “winning”, then Main Street is “losing”. Main Street already broke and in debt. Until Main Street starts “winning”* disinflationary / deflationary forces will prevail.
*More income
LikeLike
It’s nothing to do with Wall Street.
It’s creeping Gov control of the economy that is the aim.
Whatever they control, they f@@k up.
Granted, there will be more friction but for necessary services it will show up in the price and not reduced demand.
Discretionary purchases could be hit.
If demand falls, unemployment could rise. The extra Gov revenue will go on the unemployed and increased Gov worker wages to compensate for price rises.
No new wealth is created.
LikeLike
“It’s nothing to do with Wall Street.”
…
Are you saying Wall Street won’t profit?
Are you saying if Wall Street thought it was a bad idea, fedgov would still implement?
Wall Street (more profit) and Fedgov (Big Brotherer) walk hand in hand here.
LikeLike
“It’s creeping Gov control of the economy that is the aim.”
Yup. But I feel it is because without confiscating everything they will not be able to fulfill the promises. These politicians and bureaucrats across the world, bar none, are frighteningly creepy beasts!
Add in the debts and the need to ensure interest rates cannot rise, you have an explosive mixture. Scary!!
LikeLike
The psychopaths in government are surpassing themselves….a few hangings are in order.
LikeLike
Are they putting you in charge of the hangings? That’s a pretty strong statement.
LikeLike
Big Brother is here.
LikeLike
“It’s a reaction to the level of taxes we pay,” said Leyonhjel”
That’s the key. Reduce tax rates and people lose the incentive to engage in the cash economy. Then the savings can be productively invested boosting the economy. Thus increasing tax revenues to cover the loss from the reduced rate.
LikeLike
Just good intentions here..yep…yep…
“costs the budget up to $10 billion in revenue, money that could go towards funding welfare and other services.”
LikeLike
Whilst price of goods and services rise and the extra Gov revenue is spent on public service wage rises to compensate for the rise in the price of goods and services!
Back to the start, again, except now more Gov control of the economy which was the real aim all along.
LikeLike
“Black Economy Taskforce” is clearly discriminatory, couldn’t they call themselves “The Open Closet Brigade”… no… “Transparency Wallet Protectors” … sad… “Saviours of the Forgotten Buck”… err?
LikeLike
“This is not simply of matter of imposing new penalties, but part of a wider cultural change agenda.”
Just who’s cultural change agenda is that? Do Australians want someone changing their culture?
LikeLike
So if I collect welfare and cut lawns for cash. Now I will take Walmart
gift cards instead.
LikeLike
Excellent comment
LikeLike
gift cards are trackable….by who bought it. when and where it was cashed.
LikeLike
The Walmart gift cards might be traceable if they are cashed, but what if they are almost never cashed but instead just change hands again and again. Doesn’t the law require that prepaid gift cards never expire? Hmm…a private currency underwritten by the full faith and credit of Walmart’s inventory. That would be pretty funny.
Sounds better than Money Mackerels or Ramen Noodles:
http://bigthink.com/laurie-vazquez/how-ramen-noodles-beat-cigarettes-to-become-a-prison-currency
LikeLike
Why trade Walmart tokens or any other commercial paper. It only needs some trust to do what the Russians did when the ruble collapsed – they traded in kind, swapped obligations. Alternatively private transaction certificates traded between like minded people determined to stiff the Government nanocrats and interfering busybodies. Many other possibilities exist including just get rid of Governments who don’t serve the people and perhaps throw a hissy fit and drop merde on their doorstep as the French do.
LikeLike
It’s called Government Hunt For Taxes…The sheeple are either clueless, or too narcissistic and lazy to care—even about their own money…
LikeLike
It is all about government control and taxes. The West is entering into the final stages of Socialism, where they have strangled the economy to the point that no growth is possible. The government wants to extract the same or more revenue from a shrinking pie, and are desperate to keep paying off their constituents with other people’s money. They MUST keep buying those votes to stay in office and line their and their crony’s pockets. It won’t end until the grocery stores are empty and people go hungry.
All you libs: The government is not a charitable organization.
That’s not to mention that once we are banned from holding cash we become slaves. Take one step outside massa’s line and you can be disenfranchised at the push of a button. No bank account, no way to collect wages, no way to buy a pack of gum. Once you are blacklisted, do you think anyone will be brave enough to help you? THAT’S WHAT THE B@$T@RDS ARE AFTER!
LikeLike
“The West is entering into the final stages of Socialism, where they have strangled the economy to the point that no growth is possible.”
Too right! This is what you get in decline when the elite try and protect themselves from the inevitable – and probably one reason why China and the Roman empires entered a dark age. This time the East might have learned the lesson.
Guess where Cash and Gold are respected today?
LikeLike
On a related note regarding “Government Services,” how is it moral for me to petition the government to take money from you, on threat of violence, and give it to me?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Morality is a legal construct, created by petitioning government. If you want your property (a government fiction) protected from my taking of it, then you need to petition government to use the force of violence against me. That force costs money (another government fiction) to be taken from your fellow citizens, unless you want to pay for the whole thing yourself.
Once you fall into the trap of accepting the government creation of property, property rights, individual rights, money, contracts, etc… you must give government a monopoly on the use of violence to protect those abstractions. And once you start down that rabbit hole, it can go very, very deep if you and your fellow citizens are not on your toes.
LikeLike
Once morality and basic rights are nothing but legal constructs to be granted by government, there is nothing left but tyranny. Among other things, we all have the right to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the violence of others. We have the right to protect our property from theft and appropriation regardless of whether we live within a government jurisdiction or not. Government that has no respect for these rights is left with no guide beyond whatever is expedient to fulfill the narcissistic dreams of those in power. The bloodbath that was the 20th century provides more than enough evidence.
LikeLike
The only morality that matters is trustworthiness. Government is the most immoral institution ever devised.
LikeLike
Just thonk, you won’t be able to give your kids a birthday gift without the useless government butting in. Garage sales, no problem… they will tax you from a 1000 miles away, but when you want your tax refund, well, that will have to wait because they will still mot have enough to pay you… the budget, yaknow.
LikeLike
Total Control.
LikeLike
“…benefits may include “reduced crime (difficult to monetize), increased tax revenue (fewer cash transactions) and reduced welfare fraud (claiming welfare while earning or hoarding cash).”
Utter nonsense. This is about trapping capital within a system so it has no possible escape. The guys pushing hard for this should spend less time worrying about a few illegitimate transactions evading their radar and more time worrying about long term economic trends and how to maintain a playing field that is friendly to their economies.
What’s the rush, guys? Wait and see what happens to India and learn from that experience without suffering their pain; or are you in such a hurry because you know the lessons to be learned in India will make it publicly less palatable institute these draconian controls at home?
LikeLike
The Australian convict culture is evenly split between criminal government and prisoner taxpayers.
LikeLike
Expiring money immediately kills it as a store of value. People will adjust by immediately moving money into something else that will store that value. It would make sense to prepay in cash as much as possible for life’s needs and wants.
LikeLike
Another unforeseen outcome would be people refusing to work unless they needed to buy something before money “expired”. Or they take on easier jobs than they are capable of performing. The available pool of talent would dry up very quickly.
LikeLike
Once they control the exchange of hard currency to this degree the ring is closed. They got us by the short hairs. Most don’t understand the impact this has on basic freedoms. The burner just got turned up another notch and the frog is on the verge of passing out.
LikeLike
Think you have severely underestimated the power of black markets.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Black markets does not = freedom.
LikeLike
Black markets = collapse of central governments. Its why most of Africa and South America are ruled by corrupt despots like the Clintons.
As for “freedom”… I was just listening to an Aussi actress doing an interview (doesn’t really matter which one, and you’ll have to ask the Mrs if you want to know the actress’ name).
Anyway Aussie Actress was talking about how much she loved being on a very popular TV show back in Sydney. Wonderful people, location, blah blah. Wish she could do that again. Everything rose petals and amazing.
But she has been working in the USA for the last 10 years, because (and I quote here) “there is no work in Australia”.
This is the opinion of an Aussie, who supposedly loves her country and wants to be back with her family and husband and whatnot — but there is no work for her in Australia.
When anti-business governments — be it Obama or Clintons or whatever socialist wanna-be is slithering around Canberra… the effects of socialism are deadly.
*** PLEASE *** Deport Bernie Sanders to Venezuela so he can enjoy the socialist utopia he wants to force on the USA!!!
LikeLike
Guess the politicians will need to pay their nannies, gardeners and maids full minimum wages with all the withholding if this goes through?
And will they offer a receipt for bribes they receive?
LikeLike
In Connecticut, then mayor / now governor Malloy had the local DPW union do all the grounds keeping at his personal residence.
The DPW union had their newbies “volunteer” to do all the work at the mayor’s house. The mayor then went into contract negotiations with the union, which mysteriously got everything they asked for.
Obama invited this creative crook to be his guest at his final state of the union speech — two peas in a corrupt pod
LikeLike
‘it might be time to consider a minimum company tax, based not on actual taxable income but gross revenue. A tax of three percent on the $454 billion gross untaxed revenue of big public businesses alone would yield more than $13 billion.’
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2016/04/has-the-time-come-to-consider-criminalising-tax-avoidance/
Whilst a value added tax may cover the grey economy of a general population, it does not cover multinational tax avoidance and the corporate grey economy. The above incorporates both and is fairer, though still regressive.
LikeLike
Actually, it’s time to abolish corporate taxes all together
LikeLike
If we had a stupidity tax, Counterfiat would be bankrupt in seconds.
LikeLike
Reason #999 why seashells or marbles or some other medium will replace coins.
Save the RFID cash for use in paying bribes to government officials
LikeLike
No matter what government tries people will not do what does not make sense. If small business cannot profit net of taxes and risk there will be no small business. True for medium business. True for big business. End game is no business. Just government. Welcome to Venezuela. Could actually happen. For a while. Then revolution.
Viva la revolution!
LikeLike
Probably not well known in the USA but if any bank account in Australia is left unattended for a period of time (a few years) it is automatically confiscated by Government and you have to apply to get it back (if you are not dead). Maybe that is where the latest toxic cash brainwave had an origin (because they got away with it). It amazes how Australians prostrate themselves before authority with little complaint. Maybe its to do with jailbird origins?
LikeLike
Sorry, bucko, but we have escheatment in the US too. In fact, the seventh largest US bank (as of 1999) was brought down by one of its MDs diverting escheated client funds to the bank’s accounts rather than to New York State.
BTW, When did it become essential to not put pirate banks out of business for breaking the law? Seems like only when the most commercially enterprising (Bankers Trust, Lehman, Bear Stearns) were put out of business, leaving only the most politically connected (Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hate it when I am standing in Starbucks, waiting to pay for my Frappucino with cash, and the six people in front of me are each taking 2 minutes to pay their £4 with credit or debit cards “because it is so convenient to be cashless.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep. Love cash. Lots of other people love/use cash, too.
If ‘they’ ban/restrict cash, alternatives will rise. There is ALWAYS a barter menu (grey market). And if the sheeple ever figure-out just how revolutionary cryptocurr. really is, then government script may well be abandoned voluntarily over time…
Banning cash only pushes me further from the tax man. Backfire.
LikeLike
it much more difficult for criminals, terrorists and the underground economy. Rather than citizens not caring, they might actually embrace government proposals to fight the bad guys. I can imagine that’s how Trump might say it..,
LikeLike