Wickenby crackdown changes practices
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has claimed that its highly public Project Wickenby crackdown on illegality involving international transfers and other practices has succeeded in reducing questionable behaviour on the part of taxpayers.
The Second Commissioner for Taxation, Bruce Quigley, told a conference in Brisbane that Project Wickenby has succeeded in changing attitudes.
“Wickenby is now five years old and tracking very well,” he said. “By June we had completed nearly 1,200 audits, raising liabilities of nearly $730 million.”
Quigley said that 57 people had been charged and 11 people had been convicted of serious offences, with 26 criminal convictions currently underway.
“We’ve also seen the impact in what we’re calling the ‘compliance dividend’ — that is, the revenue raised from taxpayers who become more compliant following a Wickenby investigation,” he said.
Quigley said that Wickenby was also having a notable deterrent effect in circumstances where data collected by AUSTRAC had shown a 30 per cent reduction in the flow of funds from Australia to Vanuatu, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, where the project has had a focus.
He said this was compared to a 5 per cent reduction in other major haven jurisdictions.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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