Very sympathetic Butch but don't you think 32 billion is adequate compensation for something that is above ground, the real mining won't happen until the easy pickings have dried up.
Tom price was responsible for recognizing the highest quality of iron ore ever found in the Pilbara.
It just happened to be on Hancock lease.
Bazz I presume the energy required to turn a moving object would come from an electric motor. Steel on wood generated 500 degrees of heat, and produced flash steam, which can turn back to water after use, so no use for tonnages of water needs to be carried.
Abbott has no plans for a car industry in AU and has reneged on child care.

579; Uuummm, I don't know what to say !
I know computer intelligence has made big strides, but to be able to
engage in a discussion like this is remarkable.

Phillip, it is simple LEGAL accounting.

You have your gross income, take away legal deductions, then pay tax on the balance.

The trouble is, many people take the tax paid and divide that into the gross income, which distorts the figure. But hey, it's sure sounds good.

Kerry Packer had another bright idea, whereby he would take over companies that had huge accumulated tax losses, expend the losses and close the company.

Again, fully legal at the time, and as he quite rightly said, "anyone who pays one red cent more in tax than they should is a dill, cause our governments will only waste it anyway".

Boy, how true were those words over the past five years.

Bazz Who knows where it could end up. The trouble with inventions is, they can't be found in a developed state. If that is what you mean by not knowing what to say.
Butch We all know there are tax crooks every where, and the bigger they are the more they will get away with.
Negative gearing will be done away with, it only inflates the cost of housing, and land.

Here we go again, the old negative gearing thing.

My advise, is have the government build plenty of gov houses, before they change the law, otherwise the homeless rate will go through the roof.

Investors simply won't invest with after tax dollars.

As for avoiding taxes, if the laws are wrong, change them, but don't blame people for being smart.

Investors as you say are the scourge of the property market.
Negative gearing was invented by people for their own benefit and theirs only.
Before negative gearing the market was supplied by builders, building houses in between contracts. But then smart asses seen money to be made from investing in already established houses and now we have a shortage.

Loopholes is what you are talking about, found by lawyers to aid their wealthy mates, and make themselves rich at the same time. People have to be forced to pay their fair share of taxation. As America is finding out.
It's more than being SMART, it's more like avoidance.