The Tax Office has revealed it has investigated hundreds of Australians with Swiss bank accounts as a massive international data leak named prominent Australians, including late media baron Kerry Packer, model Elle Macpherson and former ANZ chairman Charles Goode, as having held accounts in the famous haven.
An International Consortium of Investigative Journalists investigation found that the Swiss arm of HSBC had almost 500 clients linked to Australia, with 856 accounts, and total combined holdings of about $US959.2 million ($1.24 billion).
The Tax Office told Fairfax Media on Monday it was already aware of the ICIJ data and had initiated reviews and audits after an infomer in 2010 handed the agency a list of hundreds of Australians with Swiss bank accounts.
“The ATO received a disk from a tax treaty partner containing data on 261 HSBC Swiss bank accounts held by Australian taxpayers. We believe this to be the same data received by the ICIJ and reported today,” a Tax Office spokesman said.
“The reporting by the ICIJ of the HSBC Swiss data highlights that no taxpayer is safe from being uncovered.”
It said in some cases, it was found that taxpayers had correctly reported their accounts to the ATO. In others there were “a number where there were discrepancies” that resulted in reviews and audits.
The Tax Office said to date these audits had resulted in more than $30 million being recovered.
On top of that the Tax Office last year ran an amnesty for wealthy Australians with hidden income and assets in Swiss accounts and tax havens to come forward. The amnesty ended in December and led to 1750 Australians declaring a total of $240 million in income and $1.7 billion in assets. Another 800 expected were expected make voluntary disclosures.
The biggest individual disclosure by a taxpayer was $30 million in income and $120 million in assets that had been held in Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
The Tax Office said about 70 HSBC account holders came forward under the amnesty and disclosed previously unreported income and assets.
This news story is reprinted from www.smh.com.au
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