Apart from anything else, it simply won't work. I've had several instances of people giving me dodgy ABNs for tax invoice purposes. I know they were dodgy because I checked on the ASIC website, just out of curiosity. Am I to be held responsible if those people don't declare their income for the work they supplied the dodgy ANBs for? They can't be, because they've disappeared into the ether and their ABN leads nowhere.

Another poorly considered knee-jerker from the debacle that is the modern ALP.

"Why then is the Gillard government doing this?"

Because the perception of business to the government is they are all corrupt. They are all ex-Unions people who have never run a business.

Because the government loves regulation, so do all its followers, and the added benefit of course, is bigger government .. yay!

Because the government treats the people as idiots who have no idea and can be easily manipulated.

Because all problems can be solved, by more tax on the people. You demonize the people you want to tax, and away you go .. Hawker Britton plan in action.

Because the government gets support from the media to lambaste the people of Australia as hicks and idiots (see the ABC opinion pieces on any day of the week).. well, they gave them government, so what more do they want.

Because this government is formed by competing egos, all trying to leave their mark on history.

"It looks like the Gillard government is conducting a back-door attack against self-employed people in an anti-small business crackdown."

No, it seems to be an attack on the entire country, anyone who disagrees or is not in a "follower" group, is an enemy and must be demoized, then attacked.

Did you see Minister Albanese last night, he seems to think it is wrong for oppositions to oppose, does he forget what the ALP did for 11 years? Then he twists what happened as if everyone were idiots.

The behavior of the government is not of a nation building benevolent government, but of a vindictive government under duress, who cannot handle the power it has.

The dog who caught the car, but doesn't know what to do with it.

oh dear another Liberal voter having a whine about the Labaour party. The fact is you don't want the issues fixed you just want to be able to operate as you have always done and get the rest of us to pay your tax. When a labour try to do something about it. Well they mat as well have said they are going to east your first born.

The simple answer to this is as the rep of this group of tax cheats you should have been proactive about fixing the problem. Then Government would not have a reason to step in.

I don't know anybody who has had work done by a self employeed tradie that hasn't had the cash price offered to them.
you have your head in the sand if you think it's a same problem

Both the major parties won't go for the big end of town because they donate the money to pay for their advertising.

It is all about screwing the workers again to keep the big end of town happy and rolling in cash.

I wonder could it be that Labor in general, & Gillard specifically have perceived that tradies are now too affluent to still be Labor voters so have decided they must be punished.

Fits in with their other tendencies to be particularly vindictive. Ex lover scorned & all that.

To be fair, the difference is the big end of town is not being asked to pay tax they haven't paid as opposed to a crackdown on tax avoidance/evasion by dodgy contractors. Certainly any Government is well within it's rights in representing the best interests of the electorate to ask for a greater share of the value of it's country's natural mineral resources' and the big end of town still makes a large profit.

This is a different topic altogether.

"They've invented a new reporting system they say will bring in about $500 million over three years from construction workers."

While $500 million is a lot of money, there is a point where the red tape involved to offset rorts provides a greater burden than the benefits of recouping that amount of tax. You can bet the consumer will be asked to pay more by suppliers who incur costs to meet those new obligations.

To be fair across the board, should every consumer record and report on every cash purchase from a tradie or a retail outlet to offset the possibility certain amounts might not be declared? How far do you take it?

There is a sometimes a line to be drawn in the sand where a choice has to be made between raising revenue and the imposts that might lead to greater overall detriment.

Will it work? What about the suppliers who receive cash from contractors for goods who in turn don't declare it? In these cases there is no record keeping. I reckon tradies will just use cash for future purchases obviating the need for any incriminating paper work.