How country-by-country reporting exposed tax havens

 The tactics criminals use on you in the age of AI and cryptocurrencies

Scams are nothing new – fraud has existed as long as human greed. What changes are the tools.

A private equity firm’s secret strategy to crush German unions on behalf of sovereign wealth funds All-Source Intelligence

The ATO and Victorian Police, teaming up once again, have successfully obtained a significant amount of illicit tobacco and cash from two residential properties in Altona North and a retail store in Hoppers Crossing, Victoria.

Tax Office, Victorian police seize 18k cigarettes, $100k in cash

ATO ‘hypervigilant’ with oversight of AI activities, Hirschhorn assures practitioners

The Tax Office is becoming increasingly data-driven, but has implemented safeguards and procedures to prevent “high-impact errors” from occurring, the second commissioner has said.

Jeremy Hirschhorn outlined the importance of human oversight when implementing AI systems at a UNSW conference in April, likening AI to a bionic arm as a tool, not a replacement.

“AI may be a helper. It can move things around, it can link, synthesise and analyse information, and it can do some things much faster and more consistently than we as humans can,” Hirschhorn said. 

“But AI cannot determine what constitutes fairness and reasonableness, having considered unique taxpayer circumstances with compassion and empathy.”

The sentiment is timely for the Tax Office, which has recently come under fire following a pattern of incorrect data matching. 

In one example, the tax authority sent letters which warned taxpayers that they had failed to include rental income in their tax returns. The issue was, many who received the letters didn’t own the properties listed in the letters, prompting complaints from disgruntled accountants and taxpayers.

Hirschhorn emphasised the importance of tax authorities such as the ATO having procedural and cultural safeguards against ‘high-impact actions’ made in error. Data itself could not reveal the full negative impacts that errors could have on taxpayers…

“Perhaps more importantly, and a lesson from Robodebt, is that the tax administrator must continue to act as a steward of that data even after it has been legally shared,” Hirschhorn said.

The Robodebt scheme exemplified the human impact of authorities’ errors and the consequences of data misuse. Under the scheme introduced in 2015, data and algorithms were misused to incorrectly claw back money from welfare recipients, resulting in $746 million being wrongfully recovered from vulnerable Australians. 

While the money was eventually reimbursed, the emotional toll and financial hardship were far-reaching, a 2022 Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme found. 

Ideally, Hirschhorn said, errors would be identified before they went to the taxpayer. As AI’s role and utility increased, he said that authorities should avoid ‘data hubris’ and cautioned against placing too much faith in automated systems, which were capable of inaccuracies…

Dean Howard Wovat, 60, was sentenced in Rockhampton District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to five Commonwealth charges for lodging false Business Activity Statements with intent to dishonestly gain money.

Commonwealth prosecutor Daniel Trigger said Howard’s offending was detected during the ATO’s Operation Protego established due to a surge in GST fraud.

Wovat, or someone he gave his MyGov details to, lodged the first bogus BAS on December 15, 2021, and the last on April 20, 2022.

Centrelink staffer -?Former QAS driver, Navy man jailed for ATO fraud in Rockhampton court

ATO pulled-up on disabled staff access to union representation A vision-impaired public servant was put on the wrong bus home by a not-so-good Samaritan. The legally blind man was told to come back into office.

The case decision is worth dissecting because its implications will, with some certainty, hit other employers and employees.

Scammers thrive on exploiting vulnerable, uninformed users, and they adapt to whatever technologies or trends dominate the moment. In 2025, that means artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies and stolen personal data are their weapons of choice

And, as always, the duty, fear and hope of their targets provide openings. Today, duty often means following instructions from bosses or co-workers, who scammers can impersonate. Fear is that a loved one, who scammers can also impersonate, is in danger. And hope is often for an investment scheme or job opportunity to pay off.

How country-by-country reporting exposed tax havens

Something called country-by-country reporting, which I created, changed the tax world forever. It forced multinationals to reveal how much profit they were shifting into tax
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Venezuela urges UN investigation of US for ‘crimes against humanity’ Andolu Agency

No Trade Wars Without Taxation: Who's To Blame And What Comes Next?

U.S. Military Buildup in Caribbean Signals Broader Campaign Against Venezuela NY Times

Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man The Guardian

 

Kmart broke privacy laws by scanning customers’ faces. What did it do wrong, and why? The New Daily

Poland warns Russia not to ‘whine’ if its jets are shot down in NATO airspace Euronews