After the names of accountants, lawyers and financial advisers who helped rich people set up companies in tax havens were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Australia’s tax office is going to get tough, according to a Fairfax report.
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The names were also leaked to authorities in Britain, the US and Australia, and at the weekend Fairfax Media published an investigation that linked several high-profile Australians to a massive inquiry into dodgy offshore tax structures.
According to an article out this morning by Linton Besser and Kate McClymont, The Australian Tax Office has now declared war on the professionals who help establish the complex legal structures which help their clients avoid paying taxes.
“I am going to target the facilitators,” said deputy commissioner of serious non-compliance, Greg Williams, in the article.
“I am a pretty simple bloke but I don’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘You know what, I am going to restructure my business around a secrecy jurisdiction’,” Williams said.
“Someone is putting those ideas into people’s heads.”
In the article out today it was revealed the ATO would, along with the Federal Police and Australian Crime Commission use the extraordinary powers available under Project Wickenby to focus on the firms.
Read more here.
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