Gold: It’s Still a Pet Rock Wall Street Journal
Like any tax, the Goods and Services Tax (GST ) is vulnerable to
evasion and fraud
Questions about the escalating size of the scam were put to Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan by Senator John Williams during a Senate committee hearing early last year.
Senator Williams: Would they not be liable for fraud charges?
Mr Jordan: If it was fraud we would have taken action with the Australian Federal Police. What they would be arguing, though, is they would be asserting they were doing what the law allows.
The ATO reports the cost to taxpayers has now ballooned to more than $550 million and continues to grow. Based on volumes, industry sources guess it may be twice the size. This would make it the second largest tax scam to hit Australia after Project Wickenby, which yielded $985 million in tax and prompted 46 convictions.
Australian Federal Police and ATO issued a press release in 2013 alleging "companies fraudulently claimed GST credits and failed to report GST correctly. They formed syndicates to conceal the true nature of their activities and to avoid detection." Australia's bullion gst fraud
Austlii: JWTT and Commissioner of Taxation (Taxation) [2015] AATA 587 (12 August 2015)
Mail theft and identity fraud has been on the rise, with organised crime syndicates taking advantage of Sydney's apartment boom and targeting the clusters of letter boxes.
Identity crime costs governments, private industry and individuals upwards of $1.6 billion each year, according to Attorney-General's Department
All that person needed was my full name, date of birth and home address to get into my inbox and I'm concerned it's just too easy ... identity fraud
Recent Identity Fraud