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Backpackers learn how to steal Australian travel
It's really pretty simple. Foreign backpackers go to Australia. For several weeks, they'll wander the country, get drunk and ... I don't know ... go to the opera. When the trip's over, these visitors file fake income claims, which get them thousands of dollars in tax refunds – despite not having actually worked (and thus not having paid any taxes). Through word of mouth, and probably a few blog posts, word has spread, and it's really kicking Aussie authorities in the wallet. And, the government is powerless. By the time they catch up with fraudsters, there usually isn't much money left. Off course, the amounts are known to be too small for the Australian Tax Office to pursue them overseas.
But, this is illegal. Of the hundreds of thousands of backpackers who visited Australia last year, 44 were prosecuted successfully. Knowing my luck, I would have been one of them.
Filed under: Activism, Oceania, Australia, Consumer Activism
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mandino Jul 5th 2009 9:01PM
I think backpackers are the most economic and the most raw of all travelers... I think that they reserve all the rawest of travels :P I have been a backpacker, so I'm a bit biased, but what can I say? A travel cannot be a travel without adventure :)