Australia’s rich come forward to declare their offshore tax structures

One hundred of Australia’s richest people have taken advantage of a rare amnesty from the Australian Taxation Office – issued in March this year – to reveal their use of secretive offshore tax havens without severe punishment.

There has also been a ”large number of expressions of interest” in addition to those 100 people, according to the ATO’s second commissioner of compliance, Neil Olesen.

The Australian Taxation Office introduced the so-called tax amnesty to encourage rich taxpayers with offshore assets to declare their interests and tax structures ahead of a global crackdown on international tax havens.

The initiative provides an amnesty for the rich – those with wealth of $30 million or more – with undeclared offshore income and assets.

It was designed to provide a ”last chance opportunity” for those who had not declared their overseas assets and income for the last few years to come back into Australia’s tax system before December 2014.