By the author’s own admission, most books advising how to best set up your finances and minimise tax obligations are dreadfully boring. If you’re a fan of the genre, this might be the best book about the tax aspects of wealth to read.

The Rebel Accountant is an engaging and lively writer who has a sharp sense of humour. It’s laugh-out-loud funny in parts. Not what you expect from this type of author. A native Brit who’s worked both there and in Australia, he’s spent his career with a talent for what he does, but doubting the cost on his soul.

What he does is help rich people avoid paying tax. He’s been at the highest echelons of established businesses, start-ups, and with people who are filthy rich, and he knows all the tricks of hiding vast sums of money or making it labyrinthine to track down, which explains why the richest people on Earth pay less tax than you or I.

You might think you know the extent of it, thanks to tax havens like Jersey or Switzerland or the Panama Papers, but tax avoidance is an industry in itself. Some accountants (like the author) are employed solely to search for and exploit loopholes in poorly written tax legislation. He’s familiar with the tax systems of many countries, including Australia, a necessary skill for a job moving money across borders to obscure it from authorities, and Taxtopia will alternately open your eyes and make you mad.

He rounds things off with what looks like a sensible approach to tax that would make it fairer on everyone. Even if it goes over your head, it’s funnier than the wittiest comedy.

Reviewed by Drew Turney