Advance Accounting and Advisory Services

News & Events

2010-06-15

Project Wickenby - is it worth the risk?

Project Wickenby is a multi-agency task force that was formally established in February 2006.

The purpose of the task force is to protect the integrity of Australian financial and regulatory systems by preventing people from promoting and participating in the abusive use of secrecy havens.

We work with Australian and international agencies to detect, deter and deal with:
* Tax avoidance and evasion
* Breaches of financial laws and regulations
* Attempts to defraud the community including investors and creditors
* Money laundering, and
* Concealment of income or assets.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) takes every possible step to support the majority of the community who continue to do the right thing by protecting Australia’s revenue system against those who seek to avoid or evade paying their share of tax.

The fight against tax crime is a complex one. The nature of the arrangements and schemes makes detection and investigation time consuming. Evidence can be well hidden or disguised and one case may provide information on existing or new cases.

Some cases are straight forward as alleged tax evasion and fraud. However, many of the cases under investigation involve intelligent, well-informed promoters and clients who design sophisticated and complex arrangements specifically to hide income and avoid the laws of most countries.

2010-06-14

Making tax-effective investments

Taxpayers are entitled to minimise their taxation liabilities and receive benefits provided under the law relating to investment activities. However, investment schemes and legal structures that do not comply with the law are considered to be aggressive tax planning arrangements. These are commonly referred to as tax schemes.

Participation in a tax scheme will result in you having to pay tax that you thought you were minimising as well as interest and penalties. So you should carefully investigate tax planning arrangements before becoming involved.

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