The associate professor of finance at UNSW, David Gallagher, has been doing a major study of performance leakage among Australian funds managers due to tax-unawareness.

Gallagher applied for a Federal Government grant to support his work. Under the question on the form which asked about how the applicant’s project would advance the national interest, Gallagher didn’t hesitate to write “something along the lines of ‘Australian managed fund investors are paying too much tax, and I want to help them understand why’,” the Prof recalled last month.

Gallagher didn’t realise his potential stuff-up until after he’d posted the application, but obviously someone in the grants department has a few unit trust investments – he got the dough.