Private school students were nearly 24 per cent more likely to go to university than government school students in 2016. Credit:Louie Douvis "We've been joining the dots on a lot of the information [gathered]," ATO Deputy Commissioner Michael Cranston said. The ATO had contacted 60 private schools and identified 100 parents involved, who the agency will be contacting through letters and/or phone calls this week. Instead of the school fees coming out of a parent's account directly, it was coming out of an offshore account linked to the parent. "What we have been seeing is private school fees being paid from offshore identities," Mr Cranston said.

The ATO has contacted 60 private schools. Credit:Michele Mossop The amounts per parent were up to $100,000 a year, but the offshore accounts that are being used to pay the private school fees may be concealing much larger amounts of money amounting to millions. "We are making enquiries and finding out," Mr Cranston said. The amounts per parent were up to $100,000 a year. Credit:Virginia Star "Some could be justifiable. Some could be an indication that they still have money offshore and are not meeting their tax obligations."

100 advisers may help the rich evade tax Intelligence has been gathered following the recent ATO amnesty, dubbed "Project Do It". The ATO was able to obtain more than 5000 client names from wealth management firms. It has also resulted in a list of 100 advisers – including tax agents, legal advisers, financial institutions and stockbrokers – operating globally that have a direct link with people who may have evaded taxes. On Monday the ATO visited seven 'adviser' firms in Sydney and Melbourne linked to offshore tax arrangements in Jersey, Switzerland, Guernsey, British Virgin Islands.

The aim is to obtain their full client lists that will allow the ATO to ascertain whether there are other tax dodgers with money and assets stashed offshore, Mr Cranston said. He said the list of 100 advisers was being shared with nine key overseas tax administrations. The ATO wants these administrators to undertake an intelligence review of their operations in their countries. There has also been intelligence sharing between the ATO and agencies such as AUSTRAC, which had helped identify the flows of monies going through elite private schools. "We can see the person contributing the money and the people receiving the money," Mr Cranston said. The ATO had also identified "relocation reimbursements" from supposed relocation companies.

"But we don't think these are really relocation companies; they may be companies looking after your money overseas, and resending it to you," Mr Cranston said. "We believe it's another way of people hiding their money [overseas]." ATO amnesty raises $127m As of June 30 the Tax Office had received more than 5800 disclosures as part of last year's amnesty, which was first revealed by Fairfax Media, resulting in $5.4 billion in assets declared and more than $600 million of omitted income disclosed. The ATO has raised more than $245 million in additional tax revenue liabilities, and so far had $127 million in collections. Mr Cranston said he estimates total collections under the amnesty – that is actual money banked – will hit about $260 million.

The amnesty revealed that the top jurisdictions where income was stashed included Switzerland ($130 million) Britain ($112 million), Liechtenstein ($70 million), Hong Kong ($69 million) and Singapore ($56 million). Mr Cranston said if people voluntarily came forward to claim hidden money and assets the law allowed reduced penalties, but since the amnesty was over, the ATO was still able to backdate assessments going back several years. The amnesty, which had offered significantly reduced penalties and ended in December 2014, had restricted the ability to backdate assessments to four years. Mr Cranston said this was just the "first cut of the intelligence database" and the ATO would continue to work closely with other tax administrations to share intelligence. Australia has an existing network of international treaties and information exchange agreements with over 100 jurisdictions.