ATO issues warning to wealthy
People who effectively control $30 million or more net worth are responsible for their own tax affairs irrespective of the business and tax advice they receive, the Australian TaxationOffice (ATO) said today.
The ATO warned that it had an increased budget and was on the lookout for high-net-worth tax evaders.
“We have increased the number of people in the high wealth individuals (HWI) taskforce to 181 and enhanced our data matching to substantially improve our profiling and risk assessment of wealthy individuals,” ATO tax commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said.
D’Ascenzo made the statement at the same time the ATO released a new booklet, Wealthy and Wise, to encourage high wealth individuals to ask questions that will keep them informed about their taxation.
“These types of questions will keep advisers on their toes and help prevent wealthy Australians from getting into a non-compliant tax situation that is costly and can cause damage to their reputation,” D’Ascenzo said.
The HWI taskforce will undertake 18 more audits this financial year than last, he added.
The ATO booklet explains what is likely to get the attention of the ATO, such as discrepancies between lifestyle and income, unexplained losses and offshore dealings.
Wealthy and Wise is available online.
AUTHOR
George Liondis
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