Accountants warned on tax evasion complicity

compliance/accounants/

17 May 2016
| By Mike |
image
image
expand image

Accountants need to manage the perceptions of some people that their offices are akin to a confessional where tax evasion can be openly discussed, according to Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand tax leader, Michael Croker.

Croker has warned that tax advisers need to ensure they do not unwittingly provide criminals with the cloak of legitimacy.

"We must become more aware of behaviours indicative of possible criminal behaviour," he said in an article published on the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand website.

Croker directly referred to the revelations uncovered by the so-called Panama Papers and warned that more might be revealed after the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) had trawled through the documents.

"About 80 of those named are already ‘known' to the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce, a group which includes the ATO," he said.

Croker suggested that tax evaders who had failed to come forward during the ATO's ‘Project Do It' were particularly exposed to possible criminal sanctions.

"Indeed, any light touch ATO treatment for this group now not only runs counter to the thinking which justified this project, but also gives ammunition to those who argue such initiatives don't work and shouldn't be offered in the first place," he said.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months ago

Entireti has unveiled the new name for the AMP financial advice businesses that it acquired last year....

4 weeks 1 day ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

3 weeks ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

1 week 6 days ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS