Archive for Fred Rollo

Australian Tax Office Targets Online Merchants

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has announced that it will gather information from eBay Australia & New Zealand Pty Ltd about online sales transactions totaling $10,000 or more during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 tax years.

This data will be compared with the tax returns lodged by online traders as part of a new “online selling data matching program”. ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan says: “Our online selling data matching program helps us keep a level playing field for honest businesses. ”

Taxpayers whose returns do not reflect the income from their online trading may face penalty tax and interest charges. The harvesting of data is likely to be extended to other online auction and sales sites for 2013-2014 and later years. Read More

Written by | Posted in Audit • Australia/Oceania • Income Tax • Sales/Use Tax

Australian Tax Office Is Probing 86 Multinationals

Pat McGrath of Australia’s national broadcaster ABC News reports that “About 100 Tax Office staff have begun a four year investigation into the tax affairs of big companies global companies operating in Australia.” (sic)

In an interview with Pat McGrath, Mark Konza (ATO Deputy Commissioner) said: “At the moment – and I should say this process is ongoing, so other cases will be identified over time – these 86 cases where we felt that the structuring events that had taken place seem to have a very bad effect on a company’s Australian tax position…”. Deputy Commissioner Konza continued, “We will issue assessments on companies that we think weren’t applying the law correctly. If they’re involved in profit shifting, they’ll get an assessment; they’ll get penalties as well.” Read More

Written by | Posted in Australia/Oceania • International • OECD

Pay Your Tax Or Get A Credit Rating Downgrade!

According to Nassim Kadem’s article in today’s Australian Review (13 March 2014), the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has floated the idea of having outstanding tax debts listed by the personal credit rating agencies. This would require a change to the secrecy provisions of relevant taxation statutes.

However, in the last several decades, these provisions have been considerably watered down to accommodate information exchange between the ATO and various Australian and international government agencies. Accordingly, it might be expected that Australia’s Parliament will not be averse to the ATO suggestion.

ATO Second Commissioner Geoff Lepper was appearing before a Parliamentary hearing Read More

Written by | Posted in Australia/Oceania • Individual

Australian Tax Office Information Gathering Guide

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) recently released a guide on their approach to information gathering. The quite comprehensive 53 page guide provides an insight to both the principles adopted by the ATO in exercising their powers and the considerable extent of those powers.

Australia’s Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 36) confers many of the relevant information gathering powers. These powers include both the power to give formal notices requiring information to be provided and formal access powers.

For example, §263 of ITAA 36 allows an authorized ATO officer to “…at all times have full and free access to all buildings, places, books, documents and other papers” and to Read More

Written by | Posted in Australia/Oceania • Tax Policy

Australia’s G20 Presidency To Target Transnational Enterprise Profit Shifting

A spokeswoman for Australia’s Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos has indicated that tax-base erosion and profit shifting will be a key focus of the G20 during Australia’s Presidency.

In this connection, speaking before he left for this week’s Davos conference, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said “We want to … try to ensure we have less leaky national taxation systems”.

Commentators have variously encouraged the Prime Minister to push for the publication of taxable incomes of transnational companies by local tax authorities, seek a global solution to the perceived problem and to work within the OECD tax treaty framework to Read More

Written by | Posted in Australia/Oceania • OECD

Australia’s Mooted Offshore “Amnesty” – Immunity From Prosecution Unclear

Although various tax advisers and some industry bodies have already expressed enthusiasm about the apparent generous nature of the just mooted “amnesty” for Australian tax evaders with offshore interests, there is as yet no certainty of immunity from criminal prosecution being available.

In this connection, The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) does not actually have the authority to grant immunity. Only the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has the power to grant immunity from prosecution. Under the Australian Government’s Prosecution Policy, the DPP can give favourable consideration to refraining from prosecution under a “public interest” clause. Read More

Written by | Posted in Australia/Oceania • Tax Fraud/Evasion/Crimes

Offshore Asset And Income Amnesty Mooted By Australia’s Tax Commissioner

Nassim Kadem reports in today’s Australian Financial Review that recently appointed Commissioner Chris Jordan has mooted a new amnesty for disclosure of hidden offshore assets and income. A Tax Office official has confirmed the proposal and apparently, Treasurer Joe Hockey has indicated support for the idea.

The amnesty would cap the retrospective tax and penalty period to four years, making it relatively attractive for Australian taxpayers wanting to come clean and avoid later criminal prosecution and unlimited back taxes. It would be particularly attractive to second and third generation members of wealthy families who have “inherited” the problem of secret offshore caches. Read More

Written by | Posted in Australia/Oceania • Tax Provision/Tax Reporting

Australian Tax Office Issues Cash And Hidden Economy Audit Guide

The Austrailian Tax Office (ATO) today issued a new guide for advisers and their clients regarding the way in which the ATO conducts audits in the cash and hidden economy area. The guide discusses “…risk indicators to identify businesses for review or audit” that “…include results from data matching, comparisons of business information against our small business benchmarks and reports from the community”. In this connection, the ATO has an on-line evasion reporting facility that is in the Australian vernacular, known as the “dob-in line”.

In the guide the ATO reveals that much of the data they rely upon is received from third parties such as on-line auction houses. Much of this data is likely to have been gathered by bot programs that use appropriate search terms. Accordingly, it is likely they will have data Read More

Written by | Posted in Audit • Australia/Oceania

Tax Breaks A Factor in Australia’s Burgeoning Private Pension Fund Sector

Australia has had a compulsory superannuation system since the late 80’s. Employers are required to contribute an amount equivalent to 9% of gross pay for each employee earning over $450 a month. Most people can choose (nominate) which fund the contributions are paid into.

The contributions are tax deductible to the employer and investment income of the funds is taxed at the lo rate of 15%. At the moment, pensions and retirement benefits paid out to retirees 60 years old or more are tax free.

Self employed Australians have had their own private funds for around 50 years. However, since compulsory pension arrangements were introduced, many more self employed, Read More

Written by | Posted in Australia/Oceania • Specialty Tax Incentives

G20 Presidency Potentially Used To Reduce Bank Secrecy And Share Tax Information

Algirdas Semeta, EU’s Commissioner for Tax wants Australian PM to use G20 Presidency to lean on Asia-Pacific financial centres to reduce bank secrecy & share tax information.

In an exclusive in today’s Australian Financial Review, journalist Geoff Winestock reports that Commissioner Semeta (who is currently in Australia) wants Prime Minister Abbott to convince Singapore, HK, Taiwan & Macau to reduce their bank secrecy provisions and to share tax information with other authorities. Commissioner Semeta is due to meet today with Australia’s Treasurer Joe Hockey and the two are likely to discuss protection of the tax base against multinationals that shift profits to offshore financial centres.

Commissioner Semeta said “Australia could find a way to get all these countries on board”. Read More

Written by | Posted in Asia • Australia/Oceania • FATCA
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