ATO

The founders of streetwear retailer City Beach have won a fight with the ATO over the taxation of a $52 million disposal of pre-capital gains tax assets.

A former Ernst & Young partner has claimed privilege against exposure to penalty and is seeking orders to avoid filing a defence in proceedings by the Australian Taxation Office alleging he promoted tax exploitation schemes.

A Senate committee has slammed PricewaterhouseCoopers for hiding behind legal professional privilege and refusing to release a report by law firm Linklaters into alleged wrongdoing by international partners, as the committee seeks more information about PwC partners involved in the firm's leak of confidential Treasury information.

In a loss for the Australian Taxation Office, an appeals court has found that the Liberty Group’s use of corporate and trust ‘silos’ was not an unlawful tax avoidance scheme.

A former EY partner is trying again to keep their identity secret in proceedings brought by the Tax Office alleging they promoted tax exploitation schemes.

A judge has rejected sweeping suppression orders sought by the founders of vitamin giant Nature’s Care over documents in a $200 million tax debt stoush with the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, instead making limited suppression orders in light of the “serious” allegations made in the case. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been slammed for refusing to release a report by law firm Linklaters into alleged wrongdoing by international partners, with a senator saying the firm was “hiding behind” privilege after it made thousands of such claims during an ATO investigation. 

In a victory for the ATO, a judge has found that payments made by Schweppes to PepsiCo as part of a bottling and distribution agreement, which did not expressly provide for payment of a royalty for use of the company's IP, were royalties and should be taxed accordingly.

The High Court has declined to weigh in on a dispute between a retired law firm partner and the ATO over tax on $182,000 in goodwill payments the lawyer received upon exiting the firm's partnership.

The practitioner accused in court of promoting tax exploitation schemes to clients was a former partner at EY who was terminated last year after allegedly disclosing $700,000 in unauthorised benefits, the consulting giant has confirmed.