TAX COLLECTION – AUSTRALIA

Watchdog to probe surge in tax debts

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Original article by Damon Kitney
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 28-Oct-19

The Inspector-General of Taxation & Taxation Ombudsman, Karen Payne, says her office will investigate the causes of a sharp increase in unpaid tax debt, which has risen from $19.2bn to $26.2bn over the last four years. Meanwhile, there was a 13 per cent increase in the number of complaints lodged with the IGTO about the Australian Taxation Office in the last year. This followed a series of media reports which accused the ATO of excessive use of garnishee notices to recover unpaid tax debts, particularly against small businesses.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF TAXATION AND TAXATION OMBUDSMAN, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

ATO seeks to bankrupt Huang Xiangmo

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Original article by Neil Chenoweth
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 18-Oct-19

The Australian Taxation Office is seeking to have Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo declared bankrupt. Huang, who is at the centre of a New South Wales corruption investigation into political donations, is said to owe the ATO some $140.9m in tax; it will seek to take legal action in Hong Kong as part of its efforts to recover the money. Huang’s Australian residence visa was cancelled in December, and his lawyers claim that he cannot be the subject of a bankruptcy order as the ATO would need to show that he is "personally present or ordinarily present in Australia".

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

How ATO is catching more fraudsters

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 11-Dec-18

The Australian Taxation Office has joined forces with its peers in the US, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands to establish the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement group. The five tax authorities will co-operate in combating activities such as tax fraud, organised crime and money-laundering. Assistant tax commissioner Peter Vujanic says the ATO’s data-matching and analytical capabilities means there is now a much higher probability that tax-related crimes will be detected, regardless of their level of sophistication.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, UNITED STATES. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, GREAT BRITAIN. HM REVENUE AND CUSTOMS, CANADA. REVENUE AGENCY, NETHERLANDS. FISCAL INFORMATION AND INVESTIGATION SERVICE, AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT. AUSTRALIAN TRANSACTION REPORTS AND ANALYSIS CENTRE, AUSTRALIAN CRIME COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN BORDER FORCE

Boosted powers, travel ban plan to cut avoidance

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Original article by Emma Koehn
The Age – Page: 25 : 27-Nov-18

A recent Treasury discussion paper flagged measures aimed at those who avoid tax as part of a crackdown on the black economy. These include imposing overseas travel bans on persons with outstanding tax obligations, as well as giving the Australian Taxation Office the power to access telecommunications data and third-party information such as bank accounts. Submissions to Treasury concerning the discussion paper can be made until 21 December.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, BDO AUSTRALIA LIMITED

ATO targets legal privilege

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Original article by Neil Chenoweth
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 6 : 9-Oct-18

The Australian Taxation Office is questioning the use of legal professional privilege by companies and their advisers. Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan stated in March that the ATO’s views of what constitutes professional privilege seem to differ from those held by taxpayers and their advisers. Deputy commissioner Mark Konza has stated that when he sought to audit the tax affairs of one company, every document he sought access to was claimed to be the subject of professional privilege. The ATO may seek to impose tax promoter penalties on large accounting firms like KPMG and PwC over their role in the promotion of schemes that seek to avoid tax.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS AUSTRALIA (INTERNATIONAL) PTY LTD, ERNST AND YOUNG, DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU LIMITED, GLENCORE PLC, APPLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, MICROSOFT AUSTRALIA, CHEVRON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

What Glencore doesn’t want the taxman to see

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Original article by Neil Chenoweth
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 36 & 37 : 9-Oct-18

Mining company Glencore has lodged proceedings in the High Court against the Australian Taxation Office. Glencore wants to the court to direct that the ATO give up copies of what are known as the Paradise Papers, which relate to files belonging to Bermuda-based law firm Appleby. Of concern to Glencore is information in the files relating to what has been dubbed Project Everest, which outlined a 2014 corporate restructure which saw Glencore relocate $30 billion worth of resource assets away from the "Australian tax net".

CORPORATES
GLENCORE PLC, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS, KING AND WOOD MALLESONS, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, APPLEBY

Tax Office hunts for undeclared income

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 19-Sep-18

The Australian Taxation Office will use data-matching technology to recoup up to $1.4bn in unpaid taxes from foreign income and cash payments. As part of the crackdown, the ATO will increase its co-operation with around 100 foreign tax agencies, with data from Austrac showing that the US, the UK, New Zealand and China are among the leading countries from which Australians receive undeclared foreign income. The ATO’s assistant commissioner Kath Anderson says there is also a growing trend for taxpayers to fail to declare income from sources such as cryptocurrency trading and gig economy earnings.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT. AUSTRALIAN TRANSACTION REPORTS AND ANALYSIS CENTRE

Tax over-claimers gouge $8.7bn

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Original article by Rachel Baxendale
The Australian – Page: 2 : 12-Jul-18

The Australian Taxation Office will seek to recover more than $A1bn worth of tax liabilities over the next four years, according to second commissioner Neil Olesen. Analysis shows that the Federal Government lost $8.7bn in tax revenue in 2014-15 as a result of individuals failing to comply with their tax obligations. In contrast, it is estimated that forgone tax revenue from companies was just $2.5bn.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, THE TAX INSTITUTE, CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Toughened laws take a bite from Apple and co

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Original article by Adam Creighton, Andrew White
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 29-Jun-18

Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Apple collectively paid Australian taxes of $A616 million in the most recent financial year. This represents an increase of 160 per cent over the previous corresponding period. Anthony Ting from the University of Sydney says the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law appears to have resulted in the large US technology firms booking more of their revenue in Australia. However, he believes that there is scope for more tax to be recovered from them.

CORPORATES
MICROSOFT CORPORATION, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, APPLE INCORPORATED, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, ONE NATION PARTY

$1bn increase in company tax take boosts the case for reform

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Original article by Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: 6 : 28-Jun-18

The Federal Government has released data showing that company tax revenue for 2017-18 will be $A1.1bn higher than had been forecast in its May 2018 Budget. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has also advised that company tax revenue for 2017-18 is expected to be $A9.2bn higher than the $A78.6bn that the government had forecast in its Budget update in late 2016. Cormann also revealed that a crackdown on tax avoidance has resulted in the recovery of $A2.7bn in unpaid taxes from multinationals.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF FINANCE, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY