Taxation Law - Get the Right Advice

One of the biggest problems for clients where they have entered into abusive taxation arrangements both onshore and offshore is to obtain competent professional advice. Ever since the advent of self-assessment there has been a significant increase in these types of arrangements many of them having being promoted by professionals who have a vested interest in concealing them to ensure their efficacy. Unfortunately every dog has his day and like so many other things the wheel turns. In this case that is exactly what has happened and the ATO is far more focused not only on its general compliance activities but is now riveted upon all types of abusive taxation arrangements and structures designed to conceal the taxpayer’s true taxation position including the use of tax havens. 

 

Where taxpayers are confronting these types of issues due to bad advice by their professional advisers they need to break free from them and seek out competent impartial specialist taxation advice from advisers who are competent to do so. Unfortunately tax advisers who have advised clients to enter abusive taxation arrangements involving various structures are not in a position to properly represent their clients as they are motivated by self-interest and the need to conceal their involvement with these arrangements. The only interest they serve is their own. It does not make sense to continue with both those arrangements and those advisers as all they are doing is putting their clients in harm’s way. Tax is not just about paying the tax which has been avoided but also about penalties, interest and in some cases going to gaol. It is serious business. 

 

Almost daily we read in the newspapers about how worldwide revenue authorities are pursuing non-complying taxpayers over a wide range of matters. Tax havens have loomed large and there has been a particular emphasis on Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, the Caribbean and Vanuatu. Obviously intelligence-gathering capabilities of revenue authorities has taken a quantum leap forward leading to information which has identified a large number of non-complying taxpayers and which will lead to the identification of some not yet on the radar. The level of cooperation between revenue authorities has never been so all embracing and pervasive.

 

To put matters into perspective a whole of government approach has been taken to tax avoidance, tax evasion and aggressive tax planning by non-complying taxpayers irrespective of the arrangements and the type of structures relied upon. Not only are tax havens under the microscope but they are being examined according to the newspapers by the leading industrialised nations of the world including the UK, Germany, France, USA and now Australia. This is not going to go away and is only going to get bigger not only because of fraud or tax evasion but also because of a focus on terrorism including cross-border financing and money laundering.  They need to determine the flow, source and application of funds to fix non-complying tax payers with liability.

In Australia high-profile tax non-compliance can lead to prosecution for fraud, tax evasion, obtaining a benefit or attempting to obtain a benefit by deception, proceeds of crime and/or money laundering. Revenue authorities have woken up that the keys to the Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows are the banks and increasingly they are becoming the focus of revenue authorities worldwide. One only has to look to the United States of America to understand just how far revenue authorities will go to address tax non-compliance including tax evasion. A figure of $200 billion has currently been mentioned involving US citizens of which the IRS is determined to collect. Arrests have already been made.

One of the hardest problems for clients is to break with their old advisers and look for someone new to assist them to overcome their taxation problems. All taxation problems escalate when clients become paralysed and seek advice from anyone other than a full time taxation lawyer as no other adviser can provide the full suite of services necessary to assist them to reposition themselves, characterise their situation and deal with any criminal sanctions. Irrespective what type of taxpayer you are and the type of structure(s) upon which you rely including corporates, if you think or are aware you have a problem or have come to the attention of the ATO or a state revenue authority, the sooner you obtain independent specialist taxation advice from us the better off you will be, as we assist clients to address problems confronting them to avoid many of the traps and pitfalls associated with matters arising from poor advice rendered by other professionals.

Contact us now for Fast, Accurate and Timely legal advice

Phone LAC Lawyers on NSW 1300 799 888 or VIC 1300 734 638 or send us an email