Published by Scamwatch, ACCC this article covers the rise of investment scams and the warning signs you are dealing with an investment scammer.

Paul Osborne
(Australian Associated Press)

The Parliamentary Budget Office on Wednesday released an analysis of the tax system since 2001 and some of the risks ahead.

Based on recent trends, the report found the future would see a drop in company tax receipts, an increase in personal income tax receipts and drops in consumer tax receipts driven by consumer behaviour and technological change.

The study found personal income tax already accounted for 53.7 per cent of commonwealth receipts.

Petroleum Resource Rent Tax had fallen as a share of GDP since 2001 despite the increase in petroleum production and exports and strong price growth through much of the period.

Labor's mining tax was abolished by the coalition in 2014.

"The PBO's key finding is premised on no tax reform occurring and the only major party going to the next election with a tax reform agenda which broadens Australia's tax base is the Labor party," Mr Bowen said.

It's also outlined plans for a "bigger, better and fairer income tax cut" for low and middle income earners than the government had proposed.

"Future budgets will still rely on bracket creep because the government's income tax plan did not fix bracket creep it just gave lots of money to wealthy people," Senator Whish-Wilson said.

Stuart Condie
(Australian Associated Press)

The stability of the Aussie dollar means bitcoin is unlikely to be widely adopted Down Under, a senior Reserve Bank official says.

RBA head of payments policy Tony Richards, who has owned "a small amount of bitcoin" since 2014, says digital currencies outside the control of traditional institutions could have practical applications but probably not in Australia.

"When a country doesn't have a credible currency, then people might look for other ones," Dr Richards told an Australian Business Economists event in Sydney.

The volatile price of bitcoin a digital asset not backed by any government or physical unit is also reason to doubt its worth as a store of value in a country that has a safe and stable banking system, Dr Richards said.

It was worth about $US6,250 on Tuesday, but that's down nearly 70 per cent from its all-time high of nearly $US20,000 in December.

While Sweden's central bank is mulling the merits of issuing its own digital currency, Dr Richards said the RBA is not yet actively looking at an e-dollar to operate alongside the traditional dollar.

Nonetheless, the RBA is keen to speak with experts in the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin to see what applications it could have.

"Even if one is quite sceptical of whether bitcoin will have a significant role in the economy in the future, I think it is hard to avoid some admiration for its design," Dr Richards said.

Matt Coughlan
(Australian Associated Press)

Bosses who don't pay workers' entitlements after businesses collapse will face harsher penalties under a proposed federal government crackdown.

Draft legislation released on Tuesday will penalise company directors and other people engaging in transactions directed at preventing, avoiding or reducing employer liability for employee entitlements.

About $70 million from the scheme was used to pay the entitlements of sacked workers after the collapse of Clive Palmer's Queensland Nickel business.

Entitlements could also be recovered from other entities in a corporate group.

"Corporate misuse of the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme hurts all hard-working Australians by placing an unfair burden on Australian taxpayers who ultimately bear the costs of those employers improperly relying on the scheme," Ms O'Dwyer said.

Matt Coughlan
(Australian Associated Press)

Australians will be able to access government services with a single log-in under a plan to create a "single digital identity" by 2025.

Michael Keenan, the federal minister in charge of digital services, said face-to-face interactions with government services would be greatly reduced.

The minister wants Australia to be a world leader in digital government, with almost all services to be available online by 2025.

"The old ways of doing things, like forcing our customers to do business with us over the counter, must be re-imagined and refined," he said.

The first of several pilot programs using a "beta" version of what will be known as myGovID will begin in October.

In a pilot starting from March next year, services including student identification and Centrelink will be connected to the digital identity.

Mr Keenan says one face-to-face or over-the-counter transaction costs on average about $17 to process, while an online transaction can cost less than 40 cents.

"This is key to protecting privacy, as the exchange will act as a double-blind service providers will not see any of the user's ID information and identity providers will not know what services each user is accessing," Mr Keenan said.

"The biggest challenge confronting the Turnbull government is to quit its addiction to glitzy digital announcements and get stuck into properly delivering these multimillion-dollar projects," Mr Husic said.