Labor has been warned that wealthy Australians will be targeted for identity theft and cybercrime under a plan to make public the names of the “beneficial owners” of more than 3 million private companies, unlisted investment vehicles and trusts.
A consultation paper badges the register – backed by unions, churches and tax transparency campaigners – as a measure to tackle multinational tax avoidance, but lawyers and tax advisers have blasted it as an overreach that will unnecessarily capture a large swath of the population,Arnold Bloch Leibler, which has a large high net worth client base, says the proposed register conflicts with the rights of law-abiding people to structure their businesses and financial affairs in a private manner.
The council’s submission also notes that the consultation paper is titled “Multinational tax integrity” but “it would be fair to say that the measures proposed appear to have very little to do with multinational tax integrity”.The Tax Institute says release of personal information as contemplated by the proposal “significantly increases the likelihood of it being abused and could potentially result in individuals being the target of identity theft, fraud, financial and personal crimes”.
The paper seeks feedback on a range of questions, including the regulatory burden on entities captured by the scheme. “The proposal contains no information on the financial gain to the Australian revenue from implementing the measure,” he said.Institute of Public Accountants general manager for technical policy Tony Greco said he had strongly recommended that Treasury reconsider the burden being placed on companies.
This information is already available. What would be useful are people who set up complex company structures and groups to hide who owns them and which country the funds are going to
Anyone can order a company search from ASIC for any company in Aus - gives you names, address, DOB of shareholder’s, directors. You just have to pay for it at the moment. Happy for the transparency but think DOB & address should be removed.
Good.
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