Mr Campbell Anderson, President of the Business Council of Australia today announced that Mr Christopher Knoblanche, Chief Executive Officer and Regional Managing Partner of Arthur Andersen Australasia would be the new Chairman of the Business Council’s Tax Task Force.

Mr Anderson said that Chris Knoblanche would bring extensive technical and managerial skills to the chairmanship of the important Tax Task Force and would build on the important contribution of its former Chairman Mr John Harvey.

Mr Anderson said that the Business Council would retain a major interest in questions of taxation for the foreseeable future. “In many respects the hard yards in tax reform are still in front of us. There are a myriad important implementation issues to settle in relation to the business tax reform package and the BCA would expect to continue to have a close involvement in the consultations over the Tax Value Method.”

“The BCA has welcomed the establishment of the Board of Taxation and we intend to liaise extensively with it and to support it in its central task of improving the quality of tax legislation. We envisage that one key role for the Board will be to facilitate business input into a technical corrections process to make improvements where necessary to the substantial changes to taxation law in recent times.”

Perhaps the most important dimension of the Business Council’s ongoing involvement in taxation reform will be to promote discussion and debate about the need for further improvements to the Australian taxation system. Mr Anderson identified the elements of the tax system that inhibited the international expansion of Australian-resident businesses as a key area for future reform. “It just does not make sense for us to continue with arrangements that cause our domestic businesses to move their headquarters offshore. I expect Chris Knoblanche will make this area a leading priority.”