The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has expanded the work of its Tax Avoidance Taskforce to clamp down on tax evasion by high wealth private groups.
The agency describes the high wealth private group as a group having net wealth exceeding $50m.
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According to ATO estimates, high wealth individuals and groups dodged nearly $770m worth of taxes in the 2016-17 financial year.
In the same year, there were about 5,000 high wealth private groups including 9,000 people and 18,000 companies.
They paid more than $9bn in tax and had nearly 780,000 employees.
Few high wealth private groups are voluntarily getting involved in risky activities such as artificial and non-commercial arrangements to evade tax, a research by the agency revealed.
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By GlobalDataATO said: “From 1 July 2020 we will be expanding the work of the Tax Avoidance Taskforce and as part of this we are introducing a new programme focusing on high wealth private groups and engaging early to help them get it right.
“Those seeking to obtain an unfair advantage by avoiding their tax obligations will attract our full attention and will be the subject of strong enforcement action.”
“Access to sophisticated data and analytical tools has increased our ability to match data from Australian and off-shore institutions and regulators and means that those engaging in tax avoidance activities will be caught out. It is not a matter of if but when.”
