Ministers say analysis of papers by crimes taskforce also resulted in 15 unannounced visits and three search warrants

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Investigations into tax evasion and crime identified in the Panama Papers by an Australian specialist police taskforce have resulted in compliance action against more than 100 taxpayers.

The revenue and financial services minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, and the justice minister, Michael Keenan, revealed on Tuesday that more than $2.5bn of offshore funds are linked to the 1,000 Australians identified in the Panama Papers.

Analysis of information in the papers by the serious financial crimes taskforce resulted in 15 unannounced access visits in Victoria and Queensland, the execution of three search warrants and 100 compliance actions in a week-long crackdown, they said.

One of the raids on a residential property in Queensland was in relation to allegations of serious tax evasion, fraud and money-laundering.

Panama Papers explainer: where does Australia fit into the offshore tax scandal? Read more

Keenan said the raid in Camp Mountain, Queensland, discovered 170kg of silver bullion bars and coins valued at about $150,000.

Further criminal investigations have not been ruled out.

In April the leak of 11.5m files from the database of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed the hidden wealth of some of the world’s most prominent figures and the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes.

Of the 800 individual Australian taxpayers initially identified in the Panama papers, an analysis of the files by Guardian Australia and the ABC revealed that Mossack Fonseca acted for 77.

O’Dwyer said the crackdown had resulted from months of work profiling more than 1,000 Australian taxpayers eventually identified in the leak, which had uncovered “taxpayers and advisers linked to tax evasion, illicit funds flows and corruption”.

“While offshore structures and trusts do have a genuine purpose for many individuals and corporations, we believe that many of these structures and trusts are being used to evade tax, avoid corporate responsibility, disguise and hide unexplained wealth, facilitate criminal activity and to launder the proceeds of crime,” she said.

“People who avoid paying the right amount of tax must understand there is no place to hide.”

On Tuesday Keenan said the Australian federal police was playing an integral role in investigating serious criminal offences identified in the Panama Papers, including leading 12 joint investigations with the taskforce into serious financial crime.



He said the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre was also working with domestic and international banks to identify professionals, such as accountants and lawyers, “who have facilitated the creation of offshore structures and vehicles to conceal and move illicit wealth”.

Since the serious financial crimes taskforce was established in May 2015 more than 650 compliance activities had been commenced or completed, raising more than $130m.

Four people have received custodial sentences following prosecution and there are 19 matters in progress.

O’Dwyer and Keenan said the Coalition government was committed to ensuring that corporates and individuals pay their fair share of tax.

How Mossack Fonseca worked with Australian clients linked to tax investigations Read more

The shadow assistant treasurer, Andrew Leigh, told Guardian Australia: “Most Australian tax avoidance is done within current laws by via tax loopholes the government prefers to ignore, not evaded illegally by criminal syndicates as Minister O’Dwyer seems to think.”

“The government should accept Labor’s offer to cooperate on preventing tax avoidance by closing the loopholes in our tax system.”

On Saturday, before the G20 meeting in China, Leigh criticised the government’s efforts on multinational tax avoidance, including abandoning plans to tighten thin capitalisation rules and the loss of 4,700 staff including 1,000 auditors from the Australian Tax Office.

Labor is committed to “closing down tax havens, improving tax transparency and making multinationals pay their fair share”, he said.

Commenting on Tueday Oxfam Australia’s chief executive, Helen Szoke, welcomed the enforcement actions but said the government needed to do more on tax transparency.

“Our recent research found tax-dodging practices by multinationals deprived the nation’s public coffers of as much as $6bn in 2014 alone; and we know that one in three large companies reported on by the ATO in 2014 paid no tax in that financial year,” she said.

“To achieve tax transparency the Australian government also needs to make the tax affairs of large Australian-based multinationals public – not only for their operations in Australia, but for every country in which they operate.”