ATO using CRW, shareholder roadblocks, inappropriate endorsements

27. Will ATO add CRW to BRW for tax audits?



By Stephen Mayne

After years of speculation about how the ATO runs its audit program for high net worth individuals, the Prime Minister let the cat out of bag on The 7.30 Report last night when he said the following:

The process that we followed in relation to Robert Gerard's appointment is a process that we've followed in relation to a whole host of other appointments and I do think what has been lost sight of Kerry is that it is no crime and it is no judgment that you have been guilty of tax avoidance or tax evasion to have a dispute with the Tax Office. A lot of people do. Most public companies are under perpetual tax audit. High-wealth individuals taken from the BRW list are automatically put under a tax audit. If you ruled out people having a dispute with the Tax Office, the talent pool to appoint to particular bodies would become very shallow indeed. So I think that should be remembered and not lost sight of.

So there it is from the Prime Minister. Anyone on the BRW Rich List is automatically audited by the ATO. But given that BRW is regarded by many as being notoriously inaccurate, do the auditors rely on other sources?

For instance, we've compiled 100 names on the CRW (Crikey Revised Wealth) List of people BRW has missed who we believe are worth more than the $110 million cut-off. Does the ATO now routinely go through the CRW as well? They should.




28. Roadblocks for shareholder participation



By Stephen Mayne

Peter Costello's parliamentary secretary Chris Pearce dropped out this release yesterday detailing changes to the laws relating to what happens at public company annual meetings.

The NRMA fiasco of endless EGMs (read its powerful submission) won't happen again because the 100 shareholder rule will be abolished. However, the government has failed to deliver on its promised quid-pro-quo change to make it easier for shareholder resolutions at AGMs. Pearce explained the backflip as follows:

The Government will not proceed with proposals to reduce the threshold requirements for shareholders to propose members' resolutions and members' statements.

"Groups such as the Australian Shareholders Association (submission here) raised concerns that such a change could make general meetings larger, longer and less focussed. Accordingly, we will not proceed with this element of the package at this time."

The Government will continue to monitor shareholder participation, and review this area of the law in three years, with a view to assessing the impact of the reforms on shareholder participation.

Once again, the Howard Government has sided with the big end of town and taken the low road for corporate accountability. If it's good enough for the home of capitalism, the US, to allow anyone who owns $US2,000 worth of shares to get a shareholder resolution on the notice paper, why do we retain this stupid roadblock that requires 100 shareholder signatures?

No individual has ever placed a resolution on the notice paper to my knowledge. Instead, only the Australian Shareholders' Association, green groups and unions have the critical mass to gather the necessary signatures as the Business Council of Australia points out in its submission.

I'm partly to blame for this because even the galoots at the ASA opposed any change to the 100 shareholder rule on the spurious grounds that it would allow the unions and green groups to do it more often.

A Federal Labor MP asked me to make a submission spelling out the case for lowering the requirement because they literally had no-one putting the case. Silly me never found the time and now we're stuck with the government claiming to be following a consensus.




29. Hawkie joins the inappropriate endorsements list



By Stephen Mayne

Mark Latham got it right when he described Bob Hawke as being "too money focused for my liking." Hawkie's standards have been lowered once again with the latest Cascade television advertisement where he provides voiceover services to talk about the beer maker's history.

It's been a while since we've dusted this one off, but the former PM certainly deserves to be on our inappropriate endorsements list – which includes the following luminaries:

Ron Barrassi: Le Pine funeral home.
Wayne Carey: gave character evidence at trial of violent criminal Jason Moran.
Mikhail Gorbachev: Pizza Hut
John Gorton: Claytons (Australia's most celebrated drunken PM endorsing a non-alcoholic drink)
Michael Jordan: did ads for Presidential wannabe Bill Bradley.
Jeff Kennett: Singapore Tourism Board
Felicity Kennett: BMW
Wally Lewis: "Hair in a can"
Greg Matthews, Graham Gooch and Ronnie Biggs: Advanced Hair
Elle McPherson: KFC
Sam Newman: period pain product
Pele: Viagra
Bruce Ruxton: Rice
Gary Sweet: impotence drug Levitra
Shane Warne: Nicorettes and Advanced Hair
Mark Waugh: Nizorel dandruff shampoo
Gough Whitlam: Pasta Sauce

Copyright © 2022 The Mayne Report. All rights reserved

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