America could take a lesson from Australia

The country and culture of Australia continues to intrigue and amaze me. Even the process of filing my Australian tax return left me in awe.

As Americans we are conditioned to know that the Internal Revenue Service is not our friend. It wasn’t until I was at the Australian Tax Office website filing my taxes that I realized how jaded I was about tax collection agencies. I laughed hysterically when I read the following two statements on the ATO website.

Be assured that if you do your best to fill in your tax return correctly, you will not be subject to any penalties if you get these things wrong.

If you make an honest mistake in trying to follow our advice and guidance in the public ruling parts of e-tax 2009 and you owe us money as a result, we will not charge you a penalty. However, we will ask you to pay the money, and we may also charge you interest. Those statements along would make me love this place.