Australia is pursuing tax evaders again

Australian authorities continue their fight against tax evaders. The new results of this fighting have just been published. It is worth mentioning that most often Australian Tax Office faces the necessity to fight against using credit cards issued by offshore banks that help to deliver the earned money to Australia where it gets spent.

Currently, the Australian Tax Office is suspicious of approximately 3600 offshore credit card holders after having examined 110 000 transactions. Reviewing transactions from another
1800 cardholders is referred by the global taskforce. 24 "non-compliant" cases have already been completed, and 4 million USD raised.

Bank account and cards are generally opened in different offshore banks of the world, but one Australian citizen who was interrogated had been using a card issued by a British Virgin Islands bank, and he drew authorities' attention by spending 14 000 USD in 28 days. This man was saying that the card had been given to him be by his British employer to cover "incidental expenses".

Frankly speaking, this amount is nothing when compared to one New Zealander who was prepared to spend 20 millions from his offshore bank account by means of no-name card and has never lodged an Australian tax return.

Many people consider Australia to be a paradise to live and retire, but they should not forget about paying taxes. On March 1, 2006 we discussed tax information exchange between the BVI and Australia that makes Australian pursuing tax evaders easier as the Caribbean countries is among Australia's most favorite tax havens.

Also, the Australian Tax Office is monitoring local promoters of schemes that in order to shift income offshore use fake business transactions.