Last week, after the Australian Taxation Office had placed an order on the famous Actor Paul Hogan that he be prevented from leaving the country, the decision has been made subject to legal challenge in the Federal Court. The Australian Taxation Office served the order on Mr Hogan as he was attending his mother’s funeral in Sydney. The federal government agency now says that Mr Hogan has waived his right to confidentiality in relation to the documents which have been seized from him by the ATO. At this stage it is reported that the ATO has assessed Hogan’s liability for unpaid tax at over $100,000,000.00. If Hogan wins, it will be an embarrassing mistake for the ATO which has

Hogan’s lawyers claim documents seized by the Australian Crime Commission are confidential and should not have been released to tax auditors. They co-operated with the Tax Office when it sought access to the documents in 2008, the court heard yesterday, but reserved their rights and tried to claim confidentiality after Mr Hogan was interviewed by auditors in 2009. The basis of this is what is known as an ‘accountants concession’ which is similar to a right of legal professional privilege.

The Tax Office claim that he had waived confidentiality was ”disingenuous” and ”an absolute nonsense”, said barrister Helen Symon, SC, appearing for Mr Hogan. ”The claim is made and is met with a sidestep [by the Tax Office]. All that Mr Hogan knows is that documents have been received from the ACC and he doesn’t even know what they are.”

Desmond Fagan, SC, appearing for the Tax Office, said Mr Hogan had ”effectively abandoned any resort to the accountants concession” and tried ”belatedly” to claim it after auditors had shown him seized documents. In the case of Mr Cornell and Mr Stewart, he said that access was granted to the auditors because of exceptional circumstances where there was a ”reasonable suspicion of fraud or [tax] evasion”.