Project DO IT: Disclose Offshore Income Today
Project DO IT is an initiative to allow Australian taxpayers to disclose offshore income, that has been previously unreported, and remains assessable by the Tax Office.
To incentivise taxpayers to voluntarily disclose, the Tax Office is offering to significantly relax penalties that would apply if the offshore income had otherwise been discovered, and not refer Project DO IT disclosures for criminal prosecution.
Concurrently with promoting the initiative and its benefits, the Tax Office is signposting that it is about to commence a large scale international data matching activity, which includes jurisdictions considered tax havens, to further incentivise taxpayers to now disclose.
The message being conveyed is less than subtle: if you don’t take the carrot now, you will get the stick. The deadline for Project DO IT applications is 19 December 2014.
Note that disclosures made under the initiative do not automatically attract its benefits. The initiative and conferral of its benefits remain at the Commissioner’s discretion.
Naively disclosing offshore income under the initiative does not guarantee amnesty.
Pointon Partners is currently engaged in multiple disclosures under the Project DO-IT scheme, and employs a strategy to protect taxpayers from vulnerability to heavy penalties and criminal prosecution, until initiative benefits are reasonably assured.
If you are concerned about unreported offshore income, and would further like to discuss how Pointon Partners could assist in making a disclosure under the Project DO IT initiative, or taxation planning in general, please contact Anthony Pointon or Robert Gordon.
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