ausprint.meltwater.com Open in urlscan Pro
51.161.192.12  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

<form onsubmit="return false;" class="modal-body">
  <p>This article is only available to Australian Financial Review subscribers. Please enter this email address that your account is registered under to continue.</p>
  <span class="input-row"><input class="form-control" id="auth_email_input" type="text" placeholder="Your registered email address"> <button type="submit" class="btn btn-success">Submit</button></span>
  <span class="email-empty-notification" style="display:none; color: red; font-weight: 600;">Email field cannot be blank</span>
  <span class="email-not-valid-notification" style="display:none; color: red; font-weight: 600;">Email address should be valid</span>
  <p>If you are not yet a subscriber, click <a href="https://subscribe.afr.com/" target="_blank">here</a> for subscription details.</p>
</form>

<form class="modal-body">
  <div class="selected-image-block">
  </div>
</form>

Text Content

This article is only available to Australian Financial Review subscribers.
Please enter this email address that your account is registered under to
continue.

Submit Email field cannot be blank Email address should be valid

If you are not yet a subscriber, click here for subscription details.

You are not a subscriber of Australian Financial Review, click here for
subscription details.

Outlet

The Australian Financial Review




Date

22 Feb 2024

Author

Tom Mcllroy

Page/s

7

Readership

286000

Circulation

48000

Keywords [highlight]:

accounting
PwC

Ave

$3894.62




Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a
license

Give the ATO law enforcement powers, says Chris Jordan | The Australian
Financial Review (Feb 22, 2024 )
Page 1 of 1





Taxation Commissioner Chris Jordan at the National Press Club in Canberra
yesterday. PHOTO: ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN Give the ATO law enforcement Tom Mcllroy The
Tax Office should be given new law enforcement powers to pursue fraud and
illegal activity, outgoing commissioner Chris Jordan says, revealing some $630
million had been illegally removed from self-managed retirement accounts in just
two years. Set to hand over to his successor Rob Heferen next month, Mr Jordan
told the National Press Club in Canberra waves of new cyber threats and identity
scams kept him awake at night, defending the ATO's management of a massive GST
fraud which implicated 150 staff and contractors. Mr Jordan has previously
advocated for the ATO to be designated as a criminal law enforcement agency. He
said yesterday the United States Internal Revenue Service and other tax agencies
overseas had investigative powers. ATO officials had been excluded from a
meeting of the J5 joint tax agencies due to insufficient powers. The group
includes tax authorities from the US, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. 'What
is of concern to me now is what I refer to as the industrialisation of identity
theft through large-scale cyber breaches," Mr Jordan said. This is scary stuff.
"The criminals are smart. But we've just got to keep ahead." The ATO released
data showing in 2020, an estimated $380 million of superannuation savings were
illegally withdrawn by trustees of self-managed super funds. Officials stopped
another $125 million being withdrawn through new registrant risk reviews. In
2021, more than $255 million of super was illegally accessed, while $170 million
was stopped from withdrawal. In the two-year period, SMSFs were found to have
entered into more than $200 million in prohibited loans. To date, more than 75
per cent of the loan amounts have been repaid. Mr Jordan said the illegal
behaviour needed to stop. Super is for retirement. If people are experiencing
genuine hardship, there are rules in place for when you can legally access super
to help," he said. "I want to make this clear: we don't set and forget when it
comes to managing compliance. From multinational tax avoidance to SMSF trickery,
we try to be ahead of the game." A recent Auditor-General's report revealed
57,000 people stole about $2 billion through made up GST refund claims after the
scam activity went viral on social media platform TikTok. Action has been taken
against 12 people who were found to have committed fraud related to dodgy GST
refunds while working at the ATO. Mr Jordan confirmed termination of contracts,
administrative action, and criminal prosecutions were under way. Mr Jordan said
it was time for consideration of new regulation to govern the activities of the
big four accounting firms, part of the ongoing fallout from the PwC tax leaks
saga. He said states and territories had a role in the regulation of partnership
structures, like those used at firms including PwC. "I think the PwC issue has
really shone a light on what should be the governance arrangements, what should
be the regulatory functions." Mr Jordan echoed concerns from ASIC chairman Joe
Longo that the corporate regulator could only consider a small part of the
activity of the big four firms, and the ATO could only consider partners as
individual taxpayers.