‘The ATO is in a position to respond decisively to this data release,’ deputy commissioner says

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Australian Taxation Office says it is ready to use information from the Paradise Papers to launch new investigations into global tax avoidance.

The Paradise Papers, 13m files from offshore services firms based in Bermuda and Singapore, have been published around the world. The material comes from two offshore service providers and the company registries of 19 tax havens, and was obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with partners including the Guardian. The papers include references to some of the world’s largest companies, sport and movie stars, and political and financial leaders.

The tax office has been working for several months with partner agencies across the world in anticipation of the new data release by the ICIJ, it said on Monday.

“I am confident the ATO is in a position to respond decisively to this data release,” said Mark Konza, the tax office’s deputy commissioner, international. “We know and trust that most people do the right thing, and that many taxpayers identified as part of the leak will be meeting their Australian tax obligations.

“However, we investigate all leads and have the resources and expertise to take action against taxpayers or intermediaries found to be caught up in the illegal use of offshore structures or providers.”

Konza said: “ATO intelligence on tax avoidance comes from a variety of sources, including from concerned citizens, advisers, partner agencies and international bodies.

“The data we are receiving from our international and domestic sources is comprehensive and current. This robust intelligence coupled with our powerful analytics capabilities, assists us to continue to tackle tax avoidance head on.”



The treasurer, Scott Morrison, dismissed Labor’s calls for comprehensive country-by-country tax data to be released, saying companies would refuse to share their information with tax officials if they knew that information would be made public.

“I’m not going to do anything that’s going to undermine a key information tool that is actually helping tax jurisdictions ... to put an end to these sort of tax shifting arrangements,” Morrison told ABC radio.

Matt Canavan, the resources minister, said on Monday the Paradise Papers investigation “underlines and underscores why it is important to crack down on multinational tax avoidance”.

Domestically, the ATO works with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian federal police and Austrac, with some cases referred to the serious financial crime taskforce for potential criminal investigation.



Globally, the ATO is part of the joint international taskforce on shared intelligence and collaboration – known as Jitsic – which brings together 37 national tax administrations for cooperative investigations.



Jason Ward, a spokesman for the Tax Justice Network Australia who has reviewed some of the documents, told the Guardian that some of the kinds of transactions uncovered in the Paradise Papers had been investigated by the ATO.



Play Video 2:07 What are the Paradise Papers? – video

“The core purpose of these is to extract profit … so that the ultimate profit is not booked in Australia, it’s booked somewhere else where it’s subject to a 0% tax rate, versus the headline rate of 30% in Australia.”

He said the ATO had done a “phenomenal job” in curbing corporate tax avoidance – “a better job than most tax authorities in the world” – aided by media exposure and parliamentary inquiries.

“The game is changing, and that risk-benefit equation has significantly changed. In most boardrooms, say five years ago, the conversation was, ‘Yes, push it, be as aggressive in avoiding our tax obligations as you possibly can.’



“Now, that conversation might still be happening in some companies still but, in most companies, the conversation has changed, and there is real acknowledgment that pushing the envelope too far has potential downside risk and huge reputational risk.”

