A tool for creating and assessing a kaleidoscope of business income tax options| For income tax.... policy law administration research revenue estimation |
The Kyscope is a computer model that allows users to play around with changes to domestic and overseas income tax treatment of chosen investments. Through its linked set of Microsoft® Excel spreadsheets, users can: The Kyscope is designed to facilitate the development, implementation and evaluation of business income tax policy measures or to scaffold the exploration of theoretical considerations. |
|
| Kyscope Brochure | This brochure describing the Kyscope is in Microsoft® PowerPoint (81Kb). Print the two PowerPoint slides
on either side of the same piece of paper and fold the paper in two to produce the four-page brochure. |
| Kyscope Examples | This set of Kyscope 'runs' for you to 'test drive' is in
WinZip format (5.6Mb). Download the file (KyscopePreview.zip) to your hard drive
and unzip it to reveal the executable file KyscopePreviewSetup.exe. Click 'Start' (bottom left of your screen) then 'Run'
, click 'Browse...', locate and 'Open' KyscopePreviewSetup.exe and finally click
'OK'. You will be invited to install Kyscope Preview. Accept all default settings. Double click the desk top
Kyscope Preview icon, and click 'Enable macros' to see an illustration of the Kyscope's structure. Read the Kyscope
copyright window, close and click 'The Examples'. |
| Kyscope Slide Show | This slide show is in Microsoft® PowerPoint and runs for about 28 minutes (447Kb).
It explains what the Kyscope can do, how it represents a 'complete' business income tax system and how it offers
a tax 'benchmark' against which to compare selected tax options. It refers to the
Kyscope Examples above. Links provide additional information. |
| Kyscope Features | This paper is in Microsoft® Word (315Kb). It lists
the pre-tax and tax options and associated applications offered by the Kyscope. |
| Kyscope Issues Papers | This is a series of papers Microsoft® Help format (15 Mb).
It looks at a wide range of issues relating to the taxing of investment income, drawing heavily on numerical analyses using the Kyscope.
It incorporates papers that seek to provide a framework for taxing investment income covering: the tax base, entity taxation and international.
Issues covered by specific papers include: capital gains taxation, negative gearing, share buybacks, taxing real income and cost to revenue of
accelerated depreciation.
|
The Kyscope in now fully owned, but not necessarily endorsed, by the Commonwealth of Australia. The developer of the Kyscope, Wayne Mayo, has a comprehensive licence over the Kyscope, which includes the right to sub-license Kyscope to specific users, subject to the consent of the Commonwealth.
If you are interested in acquiring a free licence to use the Kyscope, you should first satisfy yourself that the Kyscope offers the types of tax analyses that you require, drawing on the above files and, perhaps, the 2011 book by Wayne Mayo Taxing Investment Income: without affecting worldwide investment decisions. All the tables and charts in that book were produced using the Kyscope.
Then you should read the licence agreement that you are required to accept before using the Kyscope.
It may also be relevant to you to note also that options for capital gains tax (CGT) treatment currently in the Kyscope are: nominal gains and losses realised on the sale of CGT assets; percentage (selected by user) of gains/losses realised on the sale of CGT assets; and, annually accruing nominal gains/losses of CGT assets. Excising an inflationary slice from realised gains while allowing nominal realised losses - consistent with the Australian government's CGT design announced in its 2026 Budget - is not an option currently available in the Kyscope.
Note also that the Kyscope runs in a Windows® environment on current and earlier versions of Microsoft® Excel (requiring about 30Mb of hard disc space - 7Mb for the Kyscope, the rest for documentation and and examples). The Kyscope is viewed most neatly on computer screen size 1024x768 pixels.
If you are still interested in acquiring a free licence to use the Kyscope, containing the following:
(a) confirmation that you accept the Kyscope licence agreement;
(b) your name and your organisation's name (if applicable);
(c) your telephone number(s) and email address;
(d) your reasons for acquiring/your proposed use of the Kyscope; and
(e) the number of people in your organisation likely to access the Kyscope at any one time (if applicable).
Receipt of your email will be acknowledged. Subsequently, you will be advised as to whether the Commonwealth of Australia, represented by and acting through the Commonwealth Department of the Treasury, has consented to your acquiring the licence.
If approved, a thumb drive containing a copy of the Kyscope and associated files will be posted to you.
welcome.
© Copyright Wayne Mayo 2026