"I am occasionally reminded by the ATO that tax is a competition issue, and that a late-submitted BAS is unfair to competitors. But my competitors as a furniture maker include the likes of IKEA, who I understand is a charity registered in the Netherlands that pays no tax whatsoever in Australia. How is this fair, and how are we to encourage home grown entrepreneurs?" Email from a reader, Dave.

Dave makes a solid point. It is not just individuals who suffer from the failure of government to police big tax avoiders. It is local businesses too, small and large, forced to compete on the same playing field as their multinational rivals. The latter enjoy an advantage of scale and far lower funding costs and pay negligible tax.

IKEA ruled off its books on Sunday, so it won't be long before you will find how little it forked out last year. Credit:Reuters

It is the sort of mismatch you would expect to find in a lopsided junior school sporting contest.

Furniture retailer Nick Scali, an ASX-listed company, has just booked a pre-tax profit of $20 million and declared tax expense of $6 million for a bottom line of $14 million. Year in year out, Nick Scali pulls its weight, paying close to the 30 per cent corporate rate.