ATO waived former PM Paul Keating's $1m tax bill: ABC's Four Corners
The Australian Tax Office had initially refused to waive the charge for interest and penalties, but reversed its decision three months after issuing a formal notice demanding payment. The entire dispute went on for more than three years.
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The Advertiser
17 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Is your superannuation balance higher than your postcode average?
Four Hunter postcodes have a median superannuation of more than $100,000, and a surprising area has topped the list, according to recent Australian Tax Office data. The 2282 postcode topped the Hunter list with a median of $117,397, which encompasses Eleebana, Lakelands, and Warners Bay. The superannuation data is for the 2022-23 financial year, which the ATO recently released as part of its taxation statistics. The 2291 postcode of Merewether, Merewether Heights and The Junction was the second highest with $109,785, followed by 2305, which includes Kotara East, New Lambton, and New Lambton Heights, at $104,886. Wangi Wangi rounded out the top four at $103,837. Despite ranking at 23rd for median, the 2300 postcode for Newcastle, Newcastle East, Cooks Hill, Bar Beach, and The Hill topped the list for average superannuation at $317,597. University of Newcastle Associate Professor of finance Mia Pham said this was an example of income inequality. "The 2300 covers inner-city Newcastle, and we can see that this area has a diverse mix of professionals, and we also have students, renters, and retirees," she said. "So the fact that it ranks high in average superannuation, but low in median tells us there's a wide gap between the top and the bottom. "It could be that a few individuals have very large super balances. For example, older professionals or those people that have a high income and it can skew the average upward." The 2291 postcode was second-highest for average at $310,451, while Salamander Bay and Soldiers Point's postcode of 2317 was third highest at $248,851. Low-socioeconomic areas like Windale were on the other end of the scale. The 2306 postcode had a median superannuation of $17,467 and an average of $51,658. Associate Professor Pham said factors such as average income, employment and age played a role in an area's superannuation spread. "Many residents may work in casual or part-time roles, which don't always come with consistent super contribution," she said. "Areas with a younger population have less time to accumulate the super." The 2308 postcode, made up entirely of the University of Newcastle campus, had a median super of $1220 and an average of $12,160. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents also face systemic barriers to wealth building, Associate Professor Pham said. "Another thing is the culture and social factor, because some people, let's say, the migrant population, they may have a lower balance because they just recently joined the workforce," she said. The option to access superannuation during the pandemic was also more commonly used by people who were on lower incomes or in financial distress, creating a further divide, Associate Professor Pham said. She said the impact of withdrawing super early may be larger than people expect. "So let's say if a person withdraws about $20,000 at the age of 30, and if that money had stayed and earned a 7 per cent annual return, it could have rolled to over $150,000 by the age of 60, and by the age of 67, it's going to be more than $200,000," she said. "So you can see that's a huge shortfall and it's entirely due to missing out on decades of compounding. "I think early withdrawal was something people had to do, but it's going to be a really high price that they have to pay later in life and especially for those who already face the financial disadvantages." The Association of Super Funds Australia recommends couples need $690,000 to comfortably retire on, while single people need $595,000. That number assumes the person owns their home and receives some support from the age pension. Associate Professor Pham said it also varied depending on different factors. For example, people in regional areas may need less than those in capital cities. The estimate has increased from $500,000 for a single and about $580,000 for a couple 10 years ago. Associate Professor Pham believed there should be more financial literacy to educate people about superannuation and address economic inequality. "Many people do not understand how superannuation works," she said. "They may not understand about the tax benefit of voluntary contributions or the compounding power of the investment. "Sometimes they just consider super as set and forget. Studies show that many people don't know that the super fund they belong to performed very poorly, and they never change the fund." The federal government has recently introduced initiatives to help bridge the gap, such as a tax on high-value accounts and a superannuation guarantee on parental leave. Associate Professor Pham said those initiatives would make a difference, but that she would also like to see more regulation that encouraged employees to make voluntary contributions, particularly those on lower incomes. Four Hunter postcodes have a median superannuation of more than $100,000, and a surprising area has topped the list, according to recent Australian Tax Office data. The 2282 postcode topped the Hunter list with a median of $117,397, which encompasses Eleebana, Lakelands, and Warners Bay. The superannuation data is for the 2022-23 financial year, which the ATO recently released as part of its taxation statistics. The 2291 postcode of Merewether, Merewether Heights and The Junction was the second highest with $109,785, followed by 2305, which includes Kotara East, New Lambton, and New Lambton Heights, at $104,886. Wangi Wangi rounded out the top four at $103,837. Despite ranking at 23rd for median, the 2300 postcode for Newcastle, Newcastle East, Cooks Hill, Bar Beach, and The Hill topped the list for average superannuation at $317,597. University of Newcastle Associate Professor of finance Mia Pham said this was an example of income inequality. "The 2300 covers inner-city Newcastle, and we can see that this area has a diverse mix of professionals, and we also have students, renters, and retirees," she said. "So the fact that it ranks high in average superannuation, but low in median tells us there's a wide gap between the top and the bottom. "It could be that a few individuals have very large super balances. For example, older professionals or those people that have a high income and it can skew the average upward." The 2291 postcode was second-highest for average at $310,451, while Salamander Bay and Soldiers Point's postcode of 2317 was third highest at $248,851. Low-socioeconomic areas like Windale were on the other end of the scale. The 2306 postcode had a median superannuation of $17,467 and an average of $51,658. Associate Professor Pham said factors such as average income, employment and age played a role in an area's superannuation spread. "Many residents may work in casual or part-time roles, which don't always come with consistent super contribution," she said. "Areas with a younger population have less time to accumulate the super." The 2308 postcode, made up entirely of the University of Newcastle campus, had a median super of $1220 and an average of $12,160. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents also face systemic barriers to wealth building, Associate Professor Pham said. "Another thing is the culture and social factor, because some people, let's say, the migrant population, they may have a lower balance because they just recently joined the workforce," she said. The option to access superannuation during the pandemic was also more commonly used by people who were on lower incomes or in financial distress, creating a further divide, Associate Professor Pham said. She said the impact of withdrawing super early may be larger than people expect. "So let's say if a person withdraws about $20,000 at the age of 30, and if that money had stayed and earned a 7 per cent annual return, it could have rolled to over $150,000 by the age of 60, and by the age of 67, it's going to be more than $200,000," she said. "So you can see that's a huge shortfall and it's entirely due to missing out on decades of compounding. "I think early withdrawal was something people had to do, but it's going to be a really high price that they have to pay later in life and especially for those who already face the financial disadvantages." The Association of Super Funds Australia recommends couples need $690,000 to comfortably retire on, while single people need $595,000. That number assumes the person owns their home and receives some support from the age pension. Associate Professor Pham said it also varied depending on different factors. For example, people in regional areas may need less than those in capital cities. The estimate has increased from $500,000 for a single and about $580,000 for a couple 10 years ago. Associate Professor Pham believed there should be more financial literacy to educate people about superannuation and address economic inequality. "Many people do not understand how superannuation works," she said. "They may not understand about the tax benefit of voluntary contributions or the compounding power of the investment. "Sometimes they just consider super as set and forget. Studies show that many people don't know that the super fund they belong to performed very poorly, and they never change the fund." The federal government has recently introduced initiatives to help bridge the gap, such as a tax on high-value accounts and a superannuation guarantee on parental leave. Associate Professor Pham said those initiatives would make a difference, but that she would also like to see more regulation that encouraged employees to make voluntary contributions, particularly those on lower incomes. Four Hunter postcodes have a median superannuation of more than $100,000, and a surprising area has topped the list, according to recent Australian Tax Office data. The 2282 postcode topped the Hunter list with a median of $117,397, which encompasses Eleebana, Lakelands, and Warners Bay. The superannuation data is for the 2022-23 financial year, which the ATO recently released as part of its taxation statistics. The 2291 postcode of Merewether, Merewether Heights and The Junction was the second highest with $109,785, followed by 2305, which includes Kotara East, New Lambton, and New Lambton Heights, at $104,886. Wangi Wangi rounded out the top four at $103,837. Despite ranking at 23rd for median, the 2300 postcode for Newcastle, Newcastle East, Cooks Hill, Bar Beach, and The Hill topped the list for average superannuation at $317,597. University of Newcastle Associate Professor of finance Mia Pham said this was an example of income inequality. "The 2300 covers inner-city Newcastle, and we can see that this area has a diverse mix of professionals, and we also have students, renters, and retirees," she said. "So the fact that it ranks high in average superannuation, but low in median tells us there's a wide gap between the top and the bottom. "It could be that a few individuals have very large super balances. For example, older professionals or those people that have a high income and it can skew the average upward." The 2291 postcode was second-highest for average at $310,451, while Salamander Bay and Soldiers Point's postcode of 2317 was third highest at $248,851. Low-socioeconomic areas like Windale were on the other end of the scale. The 2306 postcode had a median superannuation of $17,467 and an average of $51,658. Associate Professor Pham said factors such as average income, employment and age played a role in an area's superannuation spread. "Many residents may work in casual or part-time roles, which don't always come with consistent super contribution," she said. "Areas with a younger population have less time to accumulate the super." The 2308 postcode, made up entirely of the University of Newcastle campus, had a median super of $1220 and an average of $12,160. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents also face systemic barriers to wealth building, Associate Professor Pham said. "Another thing is the culture and social factor, because some people, let's say, the migrant population, they may have a lower balance because they just recently joined the workforce," she said. The option to access superannuation during the pandemic was also more commonly used by people who were on lower incomes or in financial distress, creating a further divide, Associate Professor Pham said. She said the impact of withdrawing super early may be larger than people expect. "So let's say if a person withdraws about $20,000 at the age of 30, and if that money had stayed and earned a 7 per cent annual return, it could have rolled to over $150,000 by the age of 60, and by the age of 67, it's going to be more than $200,000," she said. "So you can see that's a huge shortfall and it's entirely due to missing out on decades of compounding. "I think early withdrawal was something people had to do, but it's going to be a really high price that they have to pay later in life and especially for those who already face the financial disadvantages." The Association of Super Funds Australia recommends couples need $690,000 to comfortably retire on, while single people need $595,000. That number assumes the person owns their home and receives some support from the age pension. Associate Professor Pham said it also varied depending on different factors. For example, people in regional areas may need less than those in capital cities. The estimate has increased from $500,000 for a single and about $580,000 for a couple 10 years ago. Associate Professor Pham believed there should be more financial literacy to educate people about superannuation and address economic inequality. "Many people do not understand how superannuation works," she said. "They may not understand about the tax benefit of voluntary contributions or the compounding power of the investment. "Sometimes they just consider super as set and forget. Studies show that many people don't know that the super fund they belong to performed very poorly, and they never change the fund." The federal government has recently introduced initiatives to help bridge the gap, such as a tax on high-value accounts and a superannuation guarantee on parental leave. Associate Professor Pham said those initiatives would make a difference, but that she would also like to see more regulation that encouraged employees to make voluntary contributions, particularly those on lower incomes. Four Hunter postcodes have a median superannuation of more than $100,000, and a surprising area has topped the list, according to recent Australian Tax Office data. The 2282 postcode topped the Hunter list with a median of $117,397, which encompasses Eleebana, Lakelands, and Warners Bay. The superannuation data is for the 2022-23 financial year, which the ATO recently released as part of its taxation statistics. The 2291 postcode of Merewether, Merewether Heights and The Junction was the second highest with $109,785, followed by 2305, which includes Kotara East, New Lambton, and New Lambton Heights, at $104,886. Wangi Wangi rounded out the top four at $103,837. Despite ranking at 23rd for median, the 2300 postcode for Newcastle, Newcastle East, Cooks Hill, Bar Beach, and The Hill topped the list for average superannuation at $317,597. University of Newcastle Associate Professor of finance Mia Pham said this was an example of income inequality. "The 2300 covers inner-city Newcastle, and we can see that this area has a diverse mix of professionals, and we also have students, renters, and retirees," she said. "So the fact that it ranks high in average superannuation, but low in median tells us there's a wide gap between the top and the bottom. "It could be that a few individuals have very large super balances. For example, older professionals or those people that have a high income and it can skew the average upward." The 2291 postcode was second-highest for average at $310,451, while Salamander Bay and Soldiers Point's postcode of 2317 was third highest at $248,851. Low-socioeconomic areas like Windale were on the other end of the scale. The 2306 postcode had a median superannuation of $17,467 and an average of $51,658. Associate Professor Pham said factors such as average income, employment and age played a role in an area's superannuation spread. "Many residents may work in casual or part-time roles, which don't always come with consistent super contribution," she said. "Areas with a younger population have less time to accumulate the super." The 2308 postcode, made up entirely of the University of Newcastle campus, had a median super of $1220 and an average of $12,160. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents also face systemic barriers to wealth building, Associate Professor Pham said. "Another thing is the culture and social factor, because some people, let's say, the migrant population, they may have a lower balance because they just recently joined the workforce," she said. The option to access superannuation during the pandemic was also more commonly used by people who were on lower incomes or in financial distress, creating a further divide, Associate Professor Pham said. She said the impact of withdrawing super early may be larger than people expect. "So let's say if a person withdraws about $20,000 at the age of 30, and if that money had stayed and earned a 7 per cent annual return, it could have rolled to over $150,000 by the age of 60, and by the age of 67, it's going to be more than $200,000," she said. "So you can see that's a huge shortfall and it's entirely due to missing out on decades of compounding. "I think early withdrawal was something people had to do, but it's going to be a really high price that they have to pay later in life and especially for those who already face the financial disadvantages." The Association of Super Funds Australia recommends couples need $690,000 to comfortably retire on, while single people need $595,000. That number assumes the person owns their home and receives some support from the age pension. Associate Professor Pham said it also varied depending on different factors. For example, people in regional areas may need less than those in capital cities. The estimate has increased from $500,000 for a single and about $580,000 for a couple 10 years ago. Associate Professor Pham believed there should be more financial literacy to educate people about superannuation and address economic inequality. "Many people do not understand how superannuation works," she said. "They may not understand about the tax benefit of voluntary contributions or the compounding power of the investment. "Sometimes they just consider super as set and forget. Studies show that many people don't know that the super fund they belong to performed very poorly, and they never change the fund." The federal government has recently introduced initiatives to help bridge the gap, such as a tax on high-value accounts and a superannuation guarantee on parental leave. Associate Professor Pham said those initiatives would make a difference, but that she would also like to see more regulation that encouraged employees to make voluntary contributions, particularly those on lower incomes.
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
The ATO learned it was being scammed, then paid out millions more to fraudsters
It was a scam so simple it took just minutes on your phone, where you could tell the tax office how much money to pay you, and it came through within days. The ATO loophole was so vast, tens of thousands of Australians stole a total of $2 billion. It was Australia's largest GST fraud. But it did not need to be this way. New details uncovered by Four Corners show the ATO was warned its systems were badly lacking, but even when it eventually discovered the fraud, it continued to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars. The ATO maintains it cracked down hard on the scam, moving quickly to shut down the perpetrators and cut off the money. The case of Linden Phillips would suggest otherwise. It showcases in granular detail the ATO's failures and how, while some loopholes are closed, others are being exploited on a far larger scale. Linden Phillips was no criminal mastermind, but from his home in the Victorian river town of Mildura, he easily exploited giant flaws in the ATO's GST refund system. It was August 2021, and Phillips had just been released from jail. According to court filings, a week after his release, he "opened several bank accounts" in his own name and registered a previously created ABN for GST. That was step one. Next was proof of concept. This could have taken just two minutes and involved putting just three numbers into the ATO's systems. Phillips did this by logging into his myGov account — available on your phone — and going to the ATO's GST page. Here, he said his fictitious earth-moving business had recorded minimal sales for the month. Phillips then said he was entitled to $13,158 as a GST refund. Amazingly, he did not have to specify why this was. At this stage, no one was required to check the veracity of his Business Activity Statement before paying. The ATO simply assumed he had invested in stock or capital equipment during the quarter. As the court noted, "the appellant [Phillips] did not engage in a business and had no income or outgoings for such a business". Within a week, the money was in his bank account. That was the trial run. Phillips was only just getting started. The next month, he lodged 46 separate GST refund claims seeking $821,279 from the ATO. The problem was that Phillips had been in jail for most of the time covered by these claims. Despite this, the ATO paid up promptly. Once again, the ATO had not made a single inquiry before paying the money. The algorithm in its system, rather than any human, approved the refund. To claim such a giant GST refund, Phillips would have needed to spend around $9.7 million on his business over three years. All this while having minimal sales, yet enough cash flow to not bother claiming the GST refund each month. Somehow, this was not a red flag when the ATO was paying out the money. Just weeks after Phillips made his second claim, someone at the ATO twigged that his enterprise may not be legitimate. Finally, there was a human in the loop. An ATO officer rang Phillips and was told the statements had been prepared by his accountant, for which he provided a name and number. "The number was in fact registered to a different person … not an accountant but a painter," according to the court documents. The ATO followed up with a letter to Phillips, which he ignored. As he did to further calls and emails from the ATO. Despite the suspicious behaviour, the ATO did nothing. In the meantime, Phillips bought himself a Porsche and his mother a house. The ATO would sit on its hands for the next four months, giving pause to its claim to have cracked down hard and quickly brought the scam under control. When Phillips was caught, it had nothing to do with the ATO. He was arrested in April 2022 by Mildura detective Vanessa Power, who was searching his home looking for drugs and guns. She checked Phillips's phone and "identified a series of fraudulent ATO claims," according to Victoria Police. That led police to a further 63 other offenders in the Mildura area. It was around this time that the ATO began to take the threat seriously. Four months after it first identified a problem with Phillips's GST refunds, the ATO launched Operation Protego, led by its Serious Financial Crimes taskforce. By this time, the ATO estimates $850 million had been stolen from the tax system. While Protego was operating, then-federal assistant treasurer Stephen Jones said it was "pretty easy to work out whether" some had lodged a "legitimate" GST claim or not. "There's lots of analytics that the ATO can do to work out whether this is a legitimate business or not," he said. That may have been true, but the ATO was not identifying many of these false claims until after the money had been paid. It would take the tax office 18 months to get the scam under control, and by this time, $2 billion had been stolen from the tax system. The ATO said when it launched Operation Protego that it assigned 470 extra staff to verify GST claims, and that by May 2022, "almost all fraud attempts were being stopped". All up, the ATO estimated 57,000 people were involved in the scam. Of these, just 122 have been convicted, while the ATO has only recovered $96 million — just 5 per cent of the money stolen from the tax system. The banks have helped recover another $64 million by freezing accounts. In the years leading up to the scam, the ATO's analysis showed its fraud detection systems, which should have prevented the scam, were not up to scratch. A 2018 report unearthed by Four Corners outlined how the systems were lacking. The report's author, Ali Noroozi, spent 10 years as the inspector general of taxation. Citing the ATO's internal data, he found that its so-called risk assessment systems were only marginally better than random selection. "They have certainly been on notice that their risk assessment tools could do better," Mr Noroozi told Four Corners. The tax office was slow to heed this warning, and then it also downgraded its assessment of external fraud risks from "severe" to "low" two months before the scam took off in mid-2021. It said the likelihood of risk had gone from "almost certain" to "rare". The tax office said it began building and updating new fraud detection systems even before the critical 2018 inspector general report. But the auditor general noted one of the ATO's new fraud detection systems ran a year late and was therefore not fully switched on until January 2022. At this point, it successfully detected the massive fraud, but it still took the tax office a further three months to launch Operation Protego. The auditor general found "the ATO did not have a procedure to respond to a large-scale external fraud event" like the GST scams. Watch as Four Corners investigates one of the most powerful and secretive institutions in the country, tonight on ABC TV and ABC iview. Tax experts said these processes need humans in the loop. "Before money goes out the door, particularly if there's been large changes in a taxpayer's details or accounts, that should be verified," said Karen Payne, who stepped down last year as inspector general of taxation. "Once upon a time, there was a desk audit when you first lodged your GST return to make sure you are carrying on a business that you can verify and these amounts that you're claiming are legitimate." As the Abbott government swept to power in 2013, the ATO was moving away from this model of human verification to an automated system. That would eventually see around 1,000 staff — or half the people in the division responsible for the GST — lose their jobs. "I'm not sure the ATO has ever recovered from that sort of drain of knowledge and drain of skill sets," said Stephen Hathway, a liquidator currently investigating a large-scale GST fraud. "The people [at the ATO] work really hard and diligently, but there just needs to be more of them. And there needs to be more regard to getting out there in the field and making those inquiries." While the ATO has claimed to have contained smaller-scale GST frauds as part of Operation Protego, it has struggled to stop loopholes being exploited by larger-scale scams. Stephen Hathway has seen this up close. He is currently chasing Nahi Gazal, who claims to be a wealthy Sydney property developer, but has been accused of masterminding a giant GST fraud. Gazal and his associates managed to squeeze more than $21 million out of the tax office in GST refunds. They allegedly used fake invoices to claim GST refunds for building projects that either did not exist or had been completed by other developers. Once again, the ATO did not bother to do even the most basic of checks. "It never had any legitimacy," Mr Hathway said. "There's nothing in it that ever demonstrates any act of commerce or enterprise. The whole set of transactions were completely and utterly made up, fraudulent, had no basis." By September 2023, the ATO had issued Gazal with a $44 million tax bill, including penalty interest. Four Corners can reveal that while the ATO was chasing Gazal for that money, it failed to detect that he was using a new string of companies to continue scamming the tax office. Mr Hathway has been funded by the ATO to pursue Gazal over this latest scheme, and has connected him to an additional 22 companies, which Mr Hathway said have fraudulently claimed another $25 million in GST refunds. Once again, Gazal claimed to be a property developer. "Not one bag of nails was bought from Bunnings," Mr Hathway said. But once again, the ATO did not check before paying out the GST refunds to Gazal's companies. Mr Hathway said the ATO never asked basic questions, like the address of the properties being developed, whether a development application had been approved, or to even look at a building contract. "I'm the liquidator after the event. And then when we're looking into the file, we find nothing," Mr Hathway said. Mr Hathway was not hopeful the ATO would be able to recover much of the money, and said there was nothing to stop someone else from doing the same thing. Karen Payne said the tax office needed to do better, as these frauds resulted in less money for essential services. "We should all care because it raises revenues that allow the government … to fund the services that we all benefit from … health, defence, security, infrastructure … it's pretty key part of our democracy." Watch Four Corners' full investigation into the tax system, No Return, tonight from 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
West Australian
2 days ago
- West Australian
Trade Minister Don Farrell clarifies that Anthony Albanese was not directly lobbied by Donald Trump on US beef
One of Anthony Albanese's senior Cabinet ministers has admitted that he was mistaken after claiming Donald Trump personally lobbied the Prime Minister to lift restrictions on US beef imports to Australia. Trade Minister Don Farrell had on Sunday indicated that the US President had raised the issue directly in one of the three phone conversations the leaders have shared. 'Of course, the president of the United States has raised it with the prime minister,' he told Sky. 'I couldn't tell you off the top of my head which of the discussions, but I'm aware that this issue was raised by the president of the United States.' However, the Prime Minister later clarified on ABC that the import ban had only been raised when Mr Trump said it publicly at his 'Liberation Day' tariffs event in April. Asked whether Donald Trump raised the issue directly with him, the Prime Minister replied, 'No. Donald Trump did raise it at the so-called 'Liberation Day'. He raised it publicly, and so his views were well known'. By mid-day, Senator Farrell had clarified in a Nine interview 'I made a mistake' and had confused that White House address with a private conversation between the two leaders. Australia this week lifted a long-standing ban on US beef imports—specifically meat from cattle born in Canada or Mexico but slaughtered in America —following a decade-long, science-based biosecurity review. Agriculture Minister Julie Collins, Mr Albanese and Mr Farrell had said strict standards remained in place and the decision's timing amid tariff threats wasn't suspicious. Mr Trump had declared the move this week a trade triumph for America, calling it a 'golden age of America,' and warning other countries were now 'on notice.' It comes after concern from Opposition and industry that the Albanese government compromised Australia's strict biosecurity rules to appease Mr Trump amid his tariffs regime. Nationals leader David Littleproud and other Coalition figures have questioned whether the decision was truly based on biosecurity and demanded an independent review. Shadow Foreign Minister Michaelia Cash added to Littleproud's calls on Sunday, saying she too would like an inquiry to come before the Senate. 'We now urgently need an independent review into this decision,' she said. 'It could be an independent review. I think it's incredibly important, based on the responses that Minister Farrell has given… that we get the Department in front of us very, very quickly.' Senator Cash also described Senator Farrell's claims on the Trump phone call as an 'extraordinary interview', adding 'there are even more questions now to answer'.
