The AAT has ruled that a taxpayer had failed to discharge the onus of proving that assessments for income totalling over $867,000 deposited into his bank accounts over a 4-year period were not income. The taxpayer argued that the amounts were received as loans or capital from fellow members of an informal syndicate established for the purposes of buying and selling antiques, antiquities and fossils etc sourced from China (many of which were subsequently confiscated and repatriated to China following a raid of the taxpayer’s premises by the Australian Federal Police).
However, the AAT found that the evidence did not support claims about the nature of the syndicate and how it operated, and that it was not explained why such large sums would be invested in the venture without any formal agreement as to how funds would be expended or repaid. The AAT also found that an amount of id=”mce_marker”80,000 distributed from a family company to pay off the taxpayer’s credit card debts was also assessable income. It also found that the company was liable for unpaid GST and unremitted PAYG, and that 50% shortfall penalties for all the taxpayers should be upheld.
(AAT Case [2014] AATA 668, Re Hicks & Associates Pty Ltd, Hicks and FCT, AAT, Ref Nos 2012/5517-5520, 2012/5496-5499, 2012/5504-5507, Ettinger SM, 11 September 2014.)
[LTN 178, 15/9]