[paraclete]

It has all gone pear shaped for Paul Hogan, would be Hollywood superstar. The Australian Taxation Office, ATO to those who know, have taken his passport. Paul apparently owes someone lots of mullah and is accused of laundering said mullah to avoid the dreaded tax. Now I remember this dude when he used to play squash in North Sydney and international money launderer he is not but tax avoider he might be. He jumped off the Sydney Harbour Bridge but couldn't jump off the money he earned and here we have it, trapped without a passport in your own country, and faced with not being able to leave. Gadzoks, how the mighty have fallen. I might even have to stay here myself. He hasn't paid tax in years, I haven't paid tax in years, we old squash buddies are in trouble
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/peop...ml?autostart=1

[Just_Another_Lemming]

Fun article. Thanks for sharing that Paraclete.

I have been to Australia. I enjoyed it. Beautiful country. Nice people. I woudn't mind being stuck there. I can think of quite a number of other places I would rather not be barred from leaving. Earthquake ravaged areas such as Haiti, water soaked places such as Pakistan, or Detroit, Michigan come to mind. (Apologizes to anyone who hails from Detroit and might be offended but it just isn't my cup o' tea. Sorry).

So, why haven't YOU paid your taxes.

[paraclete]

Fun article. Thanks for sharing that Paraclete.

I have been to Australia. I enjoyed it. Beautiful country. Nice people. I woudn't mind being stuck there. I can think of quite a number of other places I would rather not be barred from leaving. Earthquake ravaged areas such as Haiti, water soaked places such as Pakistan, or Detroit, Michigan come to mind. (Apologizes to anyone who hails from Detroit and might be offended but it just isn't my cup o' tea. Sorry).

So, why haven't YOU paid your taxes.

Well we have a wonderful system, it's called superannuation or put your money in a local tax haven, and then hey presto your money is tax protected, the americians have name for it but I don't think it works so well, 401K or something like that, but little John, a couple of years ago, decided that if you were good and saved your money in a nice tax protected account, then you could have money from the government as well, so no tax and more money so then you could leave your money in superannuation with tax protected income, no tax either way. But Paul has been a bad boy, it seems he has been moving his money around to various places and debating whether he has been here, or there, or some place else, and of course, there are these loans from some place, or other, which reduced his income from here, or there, or something like that, where as if he had just stayed home and done some self controlled investing in something that doesn't make money like the film industry, who knows what might have happened, he might have been able to go home to the missus

[Just_Another_Lemming]

AH. I see. Thanks for the explanation.

So, regarding your superannuation, when you retire and start to pull money from it, are you then taxed?

[paraclete]

AH. I see. Thanks for the explanation.

So, regarding your superannuation, when you retire and start to pull money from it, are you then taxed?

As long as you don't take large sums, No.

[tomder55]

Oh I see it very well. The government invents all types of tax laws... rewrites them until the pages are volumnous .
Then someone hires a person called an accountant ;who's only job is the scour the thousands of pages of tax code and devise a strategery for the person that hired him to make sure that person doesn't overpay ,and takes advantage of the multitude of loopholes the legislature included in the tax code.

That accountant finds some loophole that is probably in the gray areas of the code and advises the person to shuffle the funds to best take advantage of it. Not knowing any different ,the person agrees.

Then the government hires an army of civil servants to scour over that person's submissions to make sure that person paid every cent required. They note a discrepency in what they think the person should pay ;based on their understanding of the code . It differs from what the advisor has told the taxpayer . They call the action of the person "laundering " ,declares the person a criminal and imprisons him in the country .

Have I got it right so far ? Thousands of people hired for the sole purpose of exploiting and/ or investigating monetary transactions based on a mountain of silly regulations designed for social engineering ?

Sounds to me that the real criminals are the ones writing the laws.

[speechlesstx]

Sounds to me that the real criminals are the ones writing the laws.

Exactly, like Charlie Rangel.

[paraclete]

Have I got it right so far ? Thousands of people hired for the sole purpose of exploiting and/ or investigating monetary transactions based on a mountain of silly regulations designed for social engineering ?

Sounds to me that the real criminals are the ones writing the laws.

Tom, my view is taxation is theft, however in this case I would not be surprised if there were some engineered transactions designed to lessen liability. That sort of behaviour has been common among high fliers here for a long time. One of the transactions in question is a $4M overseas loan and interest which fortutiously reduced his income to negligible in one year and various allegations of not reporting income based on intrepretations of residency provisions but the bill is up to $150M because it is not only the tax evaded but under our law penalties and fines double and treble the bill plus interest at punitive rates on the outstanding bill. When you add to this the heavy handed collection tactics you have an act worthy of a loan shark.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1111117266305

The ATO bankrupts more people each year than any other reason for business failure but there will probably be a negotiated settlement now that Paul is forced to contemplate his navel

[paraclete]

Well what do you know? Crocodile Dundee gets to visit the US again. It seems Paul Hogan has done it again, selling his special line of BS to the ATO.

[speechlesstx]

Now if you guys would just take Julian Assange back and keep him there. Somewhere deep, deep in the outback, in the sun, with lots of spiders, scorpions, centipedes and his own kind, snakes.

[paraclete]

Now if you guys would just take Julian Assange back and keep him there. Somewhere deep, deep in the outback, in the sun, with lots of spiders, scorpions, centipedes and his own kind, snakes.

Unless he owes back taxes we are not interested. Is there any money in leaks?

[tomder55]

Well what do you know? Crocodile Dundee gets to visit the US again. It seems Paul Hogan has done it again, selling his special line of BS to the ATO.

I'll take Hogan .You can keep Gibson.

[paraclete]

I'll take Hogan .You can keep Gibson.

I'll do you a package deal, you can keep them both

[paraclete]

Paul Hogan continues tax battle in US - report | News.com.au

The only reason the IRS are gentlemen is that Paul Hogan hasn't tried to cheat them, or maybe he has been successful. The hide of this bast@rd, that they should let him go, and he takes pot shots at the ATO from twelve thousand miles away. Sometimes I think my countrymen need to get a grip on themselves

[tomder55]

Clearly he has never dealt with the IRS when it is their intent to bring someone down. Gentlemen is not the word I'd use .

What he needs to do is incorporate in Bermuda ,pay their annual fees to obtain exempt status,and open an office in a beach bungalo.

[twinkiedooter]

I love Russell Crowe. Hopefully he does not fall victim to the Aussie tax folks.

[paraclete]

.

What he needs to do is incorporate in Bermuda ,pay their annual fees to obtain exempt status,and open an office in a beach bungalo.

I would say he has already done that, that is why the ATO is after him, they are no respecters of tax havens, which is what the Wickerby inquiry that Hogan has run foul of is about

[paraclete]

I love Russell Crowe. Hopefully he does not fall victim to the Aussie tax folks.

He's from New Zealand they are only smart enough to get into trouble losing their temper