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ATO to target investors
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The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will target sharemarket investors and landlords come tax time, after uncovering $125 million in undeclared interest and dividends last year and $50 million in unreported capital gains, reported The Australian Financial Review.
The ATO said it would also look into more than $13 billion in employee work expenses that have been made, and executive salary packaging. The value of work expense claims has increased at double the rate of inflation, by eight per cent.
Small businesses would also be investigated over their employer obligations, assets sales, investments and offshore loans, according to the paper.
ATO second commissioner Jennie Granger said the ATO would increase its investigations into executives and directors who make more than $1 million a year to cover those who work for private and foreign companies. The remarks were made in a preview of the ATO's 2009 audit hit-list which is due in mid-August.
The paper reported the ATO had raised $20 million in extra tax from its review of 175 executives, with the most common adjustment stemming from share and options schemes.
Mr Granger said the federal investigation of offshore tax evasion called Operation Wickenby had returned $117 million in extra tax liabilities, a probe into bank account's held in Liechtenstein brought in $50 million, and accounts held in Vanuatu yielded $90 million in allegedly false deductions.
Mr Granger said the ATO had received a disappointing response from its calls for taxpayers with overseas bank account to come forward in July. "It was a hint that should not have been ignored because this work is now stepping up," she said.
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