tweed

A New Zealand friend has been audited 3 times in his 6 years of Australian residency.

This is supposed to be a random process but I wonder how many british expats have had this pleasure?

I'd be interested in any experiences.

Regards

ABCDiamond

And its about to get worse......

More money has been allocated in the budget for the ATO to increase its efforts to reduce tax dodging......

It isn't just a random process ! They normally have reasons to target specific groups, plus of course some at random.

tweed

My friend was clear on each ocassion. His accountant did the work etc. but it made me wonder if migrants were targeted more than most?

Regards

Vicky88

It is not unusual if someone is audited one year that they will be selected the next. It is a random process, however there are certain things that may trigger it. ie. if any welfare benefits have been claimed they cross check the social security system against what is claimed in tax returns. Also your friend might be audited because of who his accountant is. If the accountant has been found to have had any "irregularities" they may very well audit all that accountant's clients. Nothing to get stressed about if there is an audit, as long as one has been honest.

Kiwipaul

Was in NZ 7 years now Oz 4 years never been audited yet. Don't use an accountant but keep it simple (even though I have foreign investments).

A person of average intelligence shouldn't have a problem with the tax return. I've found tax office here very helpfull and easy to contact.

jumbo

Seems by the response either that few expats are audited or most of the posters are in the UK.

tweed

It seems like a fairly rare event going by the fact that no migrants reading this have been audited.

Kiwipaul

You've got to remember the tax situation down here is quite complicated, and as Alan keeps telling us with foreign investment more so.

So the number of tax auditors able to audit you with foreign investments is pretty low as they would need to know inside out these foreign investment tax rules.

When you phone the tax office to ask for help with foreign investment querries you get past to pillar and post and only half the time will you get a sensible answer.

Plus it's much eaiser to audit Oz income as they can eaisly access the info for Oz investments as everything is tied to your TFN.

Do a search on Rene Rifkin who hid $50 million in a Swiss bank when insurance paid out on a dodgy fire in Oz and didn't declare any of this to the oz tax office. This all came out about 2 years ago and the tax office seem to be doing nothing about it.

Don

Interesting about the tax audits. The Brits can expect more of these, I imagine. The UK is copying the Aus tax regime in a couple of respects, including relying more on individuals to get their tax return right and not going through everybody's tax return in such detail. That's why they are reducing IR staff numbers so heavily. But there will no doubt be a lot more staff delegated to auditing.