Global tax chiefs have announced they have undertaken unprecedented multi-country day of action to tackle international tax evasion across the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands and was a part of investigation in multiple countries into an international financial institution located in Central America whose products were believed to be facilitating money laundering and tax evasion.
This was also the first major operational activity for the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement, known as the J5, formed in mid-2018 to lead the fight against international tax crime and money laundering, with the group bringing together leaders of tax enforcement authorities from Australia, Canada, the UK, US and the Netherlands.
Following this, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) commenced investigations into Australian based clients of this institution who were suspected to have undeclared income and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) would be playing a supportive intelligence role, and investigations into more clients may follow.
“This is the first coordinated set of enforcement actions undertaken on a global scale by the J5 – the first of many,” said Don Fort, US chief, internal revenue service criminal investigation.
“Working with the J5 countries who all have the same goal, we are able to broaden our reach, speed up our investigations and have an exponentially larger impact on global tax administration. Tax cheats in the US and abroad should be on notice that their days of non-compliance are over.
“Never before have criminals been at such risk of being detected as they are now. Our increased collaboration, data analytics and intelligence sharing mean there is no place worldwide you can hide your money to avoid contributing your obligations.”
