In 'Heat, Dust, and Taxes,' Lex Fullarton explores the taxpayer compliance behavior of blue-collar workers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in the 1990s who participated in mass-marketed tax avoidance schemes at significantly higher rates than any other group of Australian taxpayers.Investigating the motivational factors which might have caused that and providing a broad background and context, Fullarton considers the physical, economic, and social environments of the Pilbara region, highlighting the extremely harsh physical and social environments in which the locals live and work. He examines the history of tax avoidance schemes in Australia from the 1970s to the 1990s to illustrate the development of mass-marketed tax avoidance schemes. Drawing on first-hand interviews with the miners as well as archival and statistical material, this rich and detailed study skillfully reveals the dominant motivational factors leading to the remarkable spread of tax avoidance schemes.

Winner of the Booker Prize as best novel of the year in 1983, Heat and Dust was also made into a major motion picture starring Julie Christie, now regarded by many as a classic.

Final issue of each volume includes table of cases reported in the volume.

In The Artful Aussie Tax Dodger Lex Fullarton studies the impact of 100 years of taxation legislation in Australia 1915–2016. He finds that despite the lessons of a century of actions and reactions of taxpayers and administrators little changes—despite entering a new century old habits are hard to break. At Federation on January 1, 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was empowered to impose income tax on its citizens. However, it was not until September 3, 1915 that it began a century of ‘tax reform’ when its first Income Tax Assessment Act was introduced. For 100 years, driven by the winds of various political and social interests, Australia ‘reviewed and reformed’ its tax legislation. Fullarton studies that transformation. Fullarton’s examination considers the oldest of tax planning entities—the British Trust (‘received‘ in Australia at colonisation)—, the introduction of Australia’s ‘reformed‘ consumption tax—its VAT, referred to as Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Australia—, an analysis of tax avoidance schemes, and finally government taxation reform activities over the century. Fullarton notes that, just one year into a new century of taxation, the Australian Federal Government put forward a proposal to go forward to the past by repealing certain sections of the Income Tax Assessment Act and transferring Income Taxing powers back to the Australian States, a position which existed prior to 1936. This book looks at how Australia’s tax legislation was grounded, added to, avoided, and evolved, until it went ‘Back to the Future’. It is a collection of studies compiled from a rich mosaic of experience and research conducted over 20 years of involvement in taxation law in rural and remote Australia.