World Economy
0

Australia Probing Tax Evasion

Australia Probing Tax Evasion
Australia Probing Tax Evasion

The Australian Tax Office says it is investigating more than 800 wealthy Australians for possible tax evasion linked to their dealings with a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which is one of the world’s biggest creators of shell companies, ABC News reported.  The investigation comes a day after the release by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalism of details of a cache of 11.5 million records detailing offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars. Ramon Fonseca, a co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, confirmed to Panama’s Channel 2 television network that the papers were authentic and had been illegally obtained through hacking. The Australian Tax Office said in a statement that it had linked 120 out of 800 individual Australian taxpayers it found in the data to an unnamed associate offshore services provider in Hong Kong. The tax office’s deputy commissioner, Michael Cranston, said the agency was working with the Australian Federal Police, Australian Crime Commission and the nation’s financial intelligence agency, Austrac, to cross-check data from the documents.

 

Financialtribune.com