The Pandora Papers was a leak of millions of documents that released previously hidden away tax information. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has been working since the release to examine every piece of information to check on Australians. The ATO examines and investigate tax evasion throughout the year but the release of these documents has added to their wealth of information that they’re heavily monitoring.
In 2016, the Panama Papers leaked which the ATO responded to with audits and were able to collect lost money. The Pandora Paper’s isn’t the only tax leak as there have been many in the past exposing the wealthy’s ways of hiding their assets. Through the ongoing work the ATO has done with these information leaks, the ATO have a much better understanding of big data when it comes to tracking down hidden offshore wealth. “We have improved our data-matching and analytics capability through our work on the Panama papers and Paradise papers,” an ATO spokesperson said.
It is important to note that the ATO is aware of the many legitimate reasons why someone may want to use offshore tax havens. It’s not always related to tax, but a matter of secrecy. Some wealthy and high-profile people may need privacy such a celebrity needing to buy a home through an offshore company or trust so that the public cannot find their living location.
The ATO deputy commissioner Will Day has said that the ATO and its partner agencies have “impressive intelligence capability” and that they have “some of the best auditors, investigators, analysts and data scientists in the world who work together to sort the good from the bad.”
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