Chris Jordan: Tax crackdown targets wealthy cheats

Chris Jordan: global action needed on Luxembourg tax deals

Neil Chenoweth - 11 Dec 2014

Chris Jordan, Tax Commissioner. Photo: Robert Shakespeare

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has called for joint compliance action by tax treaty partners to target multinational companies in the wake of a new round of Luxembourg tax leaks.

The Australian Financial Review revealed on Wednesday that US media giant The Walt Disney Company had stripped profits from international operations including Australia through a $US4 billion restructure in Luxembourg. BEPS

Michael O’Neill

Like Dr Cope, a true public servant who exceeds all expectations of leadership ....  Michael O'Neill The complex world of multinationals Stories of taxation

Criminals breach Australian tax system 
Tax office sleuths knew something was up late last year when a computer program churned out an unusually high number of GST credits for gold bars.

There are no GST credits claimable for high-quality investment grade gold bars. But there are for lower quality, second-grade gold.

All of a sudden, cheap gold was apparently flooding the market. The black market, as it turns out.

An organised crime syndicate was busted melting down high-quality gold bars, recycling and selling it back to itself under intricate company arrangements as second-grade gold — all to claim a 10 per cent GST credit.

Tax commissioner Chris Jordan confessed he was impressed with the ingenuity of the scam, which has been referred to the Australian Federal Police.

So far, it is believed, $184 million in GST fraud has been identified through the gold bar scandal. However, the con may be more widespread, with the AFP and ATO investigations continuing. Missing Trader Syndrome from Multiflex to Precious Metal

Tax crackdown targets wealthy cheats who owe the Australian Tax Office more than $4b

• SIMON BENSON NATIONAL EDITOR

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan. Picture: John Appleyard

AUSTRALIA’S richest tax cheats will be forced to cough up more than $4 billion in unpaid tax following a crackdown on the witless but wealthy by the Australian Tax Office

A two-year investigation into the lifestyles of the rich and stupid has stunned even the Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan, who has declared that the days of the “Swiss bank accounts’ were now over.

In one case revealed to The Saturday Telegraph, the ATO discovered a Sydney property developer who was declaring annual income of only $5000 a year yet bought a Point Piper mansion for $15 million.

He will be forced to pay $10 million in unpaid tax after being dobbed in by an IT specialist looking at his trust accounts in Singapore.

A Melbourne man living in a Toorak mansion was claiming $0 annual income despite owning two Mercedes and a Porsche worth $360,000. His wife had also claimed Kevin Rudd’s $900 GFC cash bonus.

“Some of these people don’t think they will go to jail … they think if they get caught they will pay back a bit and maybe get a penalty.

“What they don’t realise is that in the worst cases we will refer them to the Australian Federal Police. It is not tax dodging, it is fraud.”

“The common element is arrogance and greed,” Mr Jordan said. “These people are successful in what they do … somehow they have this arrogance that they are above everything.”

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan

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