TAX AUDITING – AUSTRALIA

Legal privilege claims in 20pc of ATO multinational cases

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Original article by Tim Pallas
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 27-Jun-19

The Australian Taxation Office has revealed that its push to crack down on tax avoidance by multinationals is being stymied by excessive claims that requested documents are protected by legal professional privilege. Deputy commissioner Mark Konza says that of the 122 audits of large multinationals that the ATO is currently undertaking, 24 companies have sought a blanket claim for legal professional privilege. This includes about 19,000 documents in one instance.

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AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

Tax Office to ramp up audits of landlords

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Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 18-Apr-19

The Australian Taxation Office has signalled that it will audit about 4,500 taxpayers who claim deductions for rental properties in 2018-19. The ATO undertook 1,500 such audits in 2017-18, after random sampling of tax returns showed that 90 per cent of claims for rental deductions contained errors. Assistant commissioner Gavin Siebert says the ATO uses data analytics and information from a range of third-party sources in its audits. It imposed penalties totalling $1.3m for incorrect rental deductions in 2017-18.

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AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

High-risk super funds put on ATO watch list

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Original article by Kate Cowling
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 21-Aug-15

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is investigating self-managed super funds (SMSFs) engaging in aggressive tax strategies. SMSFs considered high risk will be placed on a watch list and the trustee could be fined for breaches of the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act. Assistant commissioner Kasey Macfarlane warned that individuals "looking to play the system" would be identified through new data capture techniques adopted by the ATO.

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AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, THE TAX INSTITUTE, RP DATA LIMITED, AUSTRACK PTY LTD