TAX PLANNING – AUSTRALIA

Crown pays Victoria $61m in unpaid taxes

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Elouise Fowler
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 28-Jul-21

Crown Resorts has advised that it will pay some $37m of unpaid gambling taxes to the Victorian government, plus $24m worth of penalty interest. However, counsel assisting the state’s royal commission into Crown Resorts recently told the inquiry that Crown’s total unpaid tax bill dating back to 2012 could potentially be around $480m, a figure that has been disputed by the casinos group. The unpaid tax bill relates to the rewards program associated with Crown’s electronic gaming machines.

CORPORATES
CROWN RESORTS LIMITED – ASX CWN

Legal privilege claims in 20pc of ATO multinational cases

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

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.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

ATO targets legal privilege

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

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

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

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 lost as $16bn profits go offshore

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: 19 : 19-Jun-18

Profit-shifting by multinationals is estimated to cost Australia about $A5.4bn a year in foregone corporate tax revenue, according to international research. Economists from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Copenhagen concluded that Australia loses about seven per cent of its corporate tax revenue due to the practice of shifting profits to tax havens. The research is based on data from 2015, which precedes Federal Government initiatives such as its Diverted Profits Tax and the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law.

CORPORATES
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN, ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, GOOGLE INCORPORATED

Kinghorn facing jail over $30m tax fraud

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Geoff Winestock, Misa Han
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 1-Nov-17

RAMS Home Loans founder John Kinghorn has pleaded not guilty after being charged with two counts of tax fraud. The Australian Federal Police will allege that Kinghorn avoided tax liabilities totalling $A30m after claiming that he did not control any companies that were registered in the Jersey Islands. He could be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail if he is convicted. Kinghorn gained $A650m from the sale of an 80 per cent stake in RAMS via an IPO in 2007.

CORPORATES
RAMS HOME LOANS PTY LTD, ALLCO FINANCE GROUP LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE, LOCAL COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES, KALOMA CORPORATION, KALOMA PACIFIC LEASING, TRYDEN ENTERPRISES, NEW SOUTH WALES. INDEPENDENT COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES

ATO hails tech giants’ $7b sales surge

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 23-Aug-17

Executives from technology companies such as Apple and Google appeared before an inquiry into corporate tax avoidance on 22 August. Apple Australia MD Tony King told the Senate committee that the company has not been penalised following the completion of a five-year audit by the Australian Taxation Office, while IBM, Facebook and Google advised that they are still being audited. Meanwhile, Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan hailed the success of the ATO’s crackdown on tax avoidance by multinationals, noting that it issued $A4bn worth of tax assessments in 2016-17.

CORPORATES
APPLE PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, IBM AUSTRALIA LIMITED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, MICROSOFT AUSTRALIA

Taxing trusts as companies not a bad idea, lawyers say

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 28-Jul-17

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has indicated that he will scrutinise the tax treatment of family trusts if Labor wins the next federal election. Currently, trust themselves are not taxed, with the income they distribute being taxed at a beneficiary level. However, it is possible that Labor may decide to start taxing trusts as companies, a move once considered by the Howard government. Michael Parker of Hall & Wilcox says such an idea has merit, provided that trusts are still able to access franking credits and the capital gains tax discount.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, HALL AND WILCOX, RSM GROUP, BDO GROUP PTY LTD

Labor won’t abolish trusts, just tax them

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 26-Jul-17

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says the Australian Labor Party will still allow people to use trust structures if it wins the next federal election. However, Labor will crack down on the use of trusts as vehicles to reduce tax liabilities, although there are concerns that its measures could mainly affect users of trusts such as farmers and small businesses. Treasurer Scott Morrison says there are many legitimate reasons for using a trust.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Multiple SMSF strategy may prove illegal

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Sally Patten
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 24-Apr-17

Changes to superannuation tax rules from 1 July 2017 may prompt some investors who already have one self-managed super fund (SMSF) to set up a second one. However, the Australian Taxation Office has indicated that it will keeping a close eye what it perceives as any attempt to reduce tax by setting up a second SMSF. Fines, penalties and even disqualification are possible remedies available to the ATO.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, SMSF ASSOCIATION, HLB MANN JUDD