Air Profit
Unlike the US government, I wouldn’t classify the Australian government as desperate. Yes they will be running a deficit for a number of years, but they are also starting from a base of no government debt.
First of all the population of the US is 260 million not 400 million. Of the approximately 3 million US expats less than 500000 pay world wide tax as most live and work in countries that have higher marginal rates of tax than the US and also have tax treaties. Of the 300000 thousand Australians that are expats, most live in the UK where the tax rates are similar to Australia and with the tax treaty with the UK most wouldn’t be liable for Australian tax. Remember world wide tax isn’t double taxation. Just like the US does with its expats, they would get a tax credit for tax paid in their country of residence. So with this information at hand, how much tax do you think the Australian government would get if they were to legislate world wide tax and how much do you thing it will cost them to collect it? A hint. The cost of collecting it will be more than the revenue raised. This is straight from the Treasury Department who advise the Federal Government and this is what they have told them. Until the population of Australian expats significantly increases, it isn’t worth the government’s limited resources to try and tax them. That is the hard and cold facts.