THE DISTILLERY: Tax scramble

Each day, Distillery selects the three or four best ideas that have been put forward by the nation's leading business and economic commentators (and lists other items they have covered). Readers are invited to comment on the Distillery selections in The Conversation. The Gillard government needs money to achieve its fading budget surplus promise and has a comfortable place to take it from – big business. But the latest plan to force companies to revise their books back seven years hasn't gotten the same kind of attention that the carbon tax or the mineral resources rent tax has. The Age's Adele Ferguson blows the lid on the government's plan and its shotgun industry consultation. Another commentator reassures Telstra shareholders that the decline of Sensis is not a big deal; David Thodey knows mobile phones and the NBN is the telco's future. Meanwhile, as the administration of Ansett Australia finally draws to a close, one commentator discovers that we still don't know what the administrators have been paid. But we start with The Age's Adele Ferguson, who looks at the quickly unfolding tax battle between Canberra – specifically Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten – and business, which has been given less than a month to make submissions on the consultation paper. Lobbyists are scrambling to voice objections to the way the government is planning to close what's called "transfer pricing loopholes,” with heavy-handed seven-year retrospective legislation.

"With such a short time frame to comment on such a significant piece of tax law, business and lobby groups have been out in force in the past few days, travelling to Canberra to lobby Treasury, government officials and the opposition to try to dilute the proposal and drop the retrospective aspect of the legislation. But it is a piece of law that has the potential to raise billions of dollars in extra tax at a time when the government is struggling to keep a lid on its budget deficit, never mind meet its election promise to be in surplus by 2013.”

Turning to Telstra's results and The Sydney Morning Herald's Elizabeth Knight took a leaf from the book of the company's shareholders and looked beyond one of Telstra's old profit engines, Sensis, and on to what will matter for the long term.

"Shareholders will be more focused on an important driver for future profits – the growth in mobile customer numbers. Here the momentum is continuing and profitable customer numbers are still going up. This was the promise Thodey made to shareholders when the company took a hit to profits in 2011. The second leg to this story, now that the company appears to be pricing its mobile services more appropriately, is customer service. It's not rocket science. The previous chief executive, Sol Trujillo, was focused on building networks and then overcharging users for the admittedly superior product.”

Meanwhile, fellow Fairfax journalist Michael West digs deep into the administration of Ansett Australia, which is only just drawing to a close, and finds that after all this time, we still don't know what the administrators at KordaMentha have been paid for the case that made them.

"KordaMentha doesn't have an answer. Union reps on the creditors' committee, who were instrumental in appointing the administrators, don't know. The corporate regulator referred the inquiry back to KordaMentha. The real reason we don't know comes down to systematic regulatory failure involving Ansett's financial accounts. An investigation by BusinessDay has found the Australian Securities and Investments Commission cannot explain why eight years' of audited financial accounts for the Ansett Group are missing. ASIC says it issued a financial reporting exemption covering the other two years of this 10-year administration (2004-05), but that document has never been made public.”

The Australian's Matthew Stevens takes a close look at claims that Taiwan steelmaker China Steel – three guesses for where the product ends up – is pushing for iron ore and coal suppliers to defer or cut contract volumes and concludes it's a distraction from its hopes of securing monthly pricing contracts. At least, that's hopefully the case because otherwise Rio Tinto might have to prepare for some unpleasantness.

"Now, given I am right and China Steel's public posturing is authentic but aimed more at an alteration of the pricing matrix than it is a serious move to postpone or cancel contracted volumes, then Rio's owners really will need to start factoring in that sort of cost... But that is the best-case outcome here. Because, if I am wrong and this really is about something immediately rotten in Taiwan's steel outlook (and remember, China Steel sells half of its product into mainland China), then there is something much darker to worry about.”

Turning back to Telstra's results to round out the commentaries and The Sydney Morning Herald's Malcolm Maiden and The Australian's John Durie reach broadly similar conclusions about the decline of Sensis.

The Weekend Financial Review's Chanticleer column from Tony Boyd takes stock of the executive remuneration reports that have been given the heave-ho by shareholders.

Meanwhile, The Age's Garimperio columnist Barry Fitzgerald says the rally in uranium stocks was overdone, while The Australian's Pure Speculation columnist Robin Bromby says comparatively speaking, they're still struggling. Bromby's colleague Paul Garvey picks up on the troubles at Lynas Corp, while The Age's Michael West congratulates Pharmanet for its persistence in releasing a pain relief product.

And rounding out company news, The Australian's Tim Boreham foresees a tumultuous annual general meeting for Washington H. Soul Pattinson as major shareholder Perpetual pushes for an independent director.

Turning to economics and The Sydney Morning Herald's Ross Gittins undermines the notion that it's the Australian dollar that's driving consumers towards internet retail, while his colleague Michael Pascoe says the latest statistics show Australians aren't really doing it tough.

Finally, The Australian's Rowan Callick has some concerns for China's eternal balance between growth and inflation, The Australian's David Uren picks through the European basket case and the Herald Sun's Terry McCrann destroys the perceived close links between the bottom line of the Australian budget and the cash rate of the Reserve Bank.